Air Line PilOt

Transcription

Air Line PilOt

December 2015
Air
Line
PilOt
Official Journal of the Air Line Pilots
Association, International
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
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» Year in Review
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» Working Out Made
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DECEMBER2015CONTENTS
VOLUME 84, NUMBER 10
34
COMMENTARY
FEATURES
DEPARTMENTS
5 OUR UNION
17 FIFTH ANNUAL
PHOTOGRAPHY ISSUE
9 PREFLIGHT
6 WEIGHING IN
25 PROGRESS REPORT:
ALPA’S STRATEGIC PLAN
Thinking Outside the Box
7 PILOT COMMENTARY
29 EARNING THEIR
PLACE IN THE SUN
The Rest of the Team
ASO Fuels ALPA’s Success
How the Middle East 3 Affects
Low-Cost, Midsize Carriers
32 ALPA@WORK
33 HEALTH WATCH
Fitness Apps = No Gym
Necessary
34 OUR STORIES
31 MY FIRST FLIGHT
Drop the Puck
8 GUEST COMMENTARY
Building Influence
35 2015 INDEX
ABOUT THE COVER
36 THE LANDING
Year in Review: 2015
A FedEx Express MD-11 landing at Salt Lake City International Airport. Photo by Capt.
Dayton Burkholder
(Delta).
38 WE ARE ALPA
ALPA Resources and
Contact Numbers
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Air Line Pilot (ISSN 0002-242X) is published
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December 2015 Air Line Pilot »3
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4 » Air Line Pilot December 2015
OurUnion
The Rest of the Team
“T
he main ingredient of stardom is the
rest of the team,” said U.S. basketball
player and coach John Wooden. This
grounding principle guides coaching in basketball, but it’s also the benchmark of ALPA’s work.
From negotiating contracts to advancing safety,
our union’s lasting accomplishments rely on a
strategy of seeking advancement with a team
effort and attitude.
This issue of Air Line Pilot tells the story of
the Sun Country pilots’ five-year marathon to
bargain a new contract. Capt. Brian Roseen, the
Sun Country pilots’ Master Executive Council
(MEC) chairman, recalls the pilots’ focus on
both the team and the long term. “As prior MEC
negotiators had reminded us, we knew that
every pilot would find something in the new
contract that he or she did like as well as something that they didn’t like, but the fact that we
would all be better off under a new contract is
what kept us unified,” he says (see page 29).
The Sun Country pilot leaders cited the pilots’
solidarity with the MEC and the Negotiating Committee as well as ALPA’s support and
resources as the reasons behind their success.
The Strategic Preparedness and Strike Committee, led by Capt. Brian Florence (United), joined
with ALPA staff experts from the Representation,
Economic & Financial Analysis, and Communications Departments to fuel the effort. While
three members of the Sun Country Negotiating
Committee may have sat at the bargaining table,
the rest of the team was present in both spirit
and in substance, contributing in every way.
Similarly, when recent FAA tests showed that
as few as three lithium batteries on board an
aircraft are needed to cause a fire that could
overwhelm the available fire suppression,
ALPA’s team used the new data to renew our
union’s longtime call for action.
While lithium-metal batteries are banned
worldwide from being shipped as cargo on passenger airliners, they continue to be permitted
to be shipped in unrestricted quantities on allcargo airliners. ALPA adamantly maintains that
these batteries pose the same risk regardless of
the type of aircraft that transports them. Capt.
Scott Schwartz (FedEx Express), the director of
ALPA’s Dangerous Goods Program, is helping
to lead our union’s efforts to advance one level
of safety in all flight operations. Congress must
give the Department of Transportation the
authority to fully regulate all lithium batteries, including those carried aboard all-cargo
aircraft.
In addition, ALPA’s Government Affairs,
Engineering & Air Safety, and Communications
teams are reaching out with our members’
concerns about UAS safety to the news media,
lawmakers, and safety regulators in the United
States and Canada.
As a member of the FAA’s Unmanned Aircraft
Systems (UAS) Registration Task Force Aviation
Rulemaking Committee (ARC), ALPA supported
its goal to ensure registration of UAS adds
accountability and increases safety for operators. While not included in the ARC’s recommendations, ALPA feels strongly that mandatory registration of UAS at the point of sale is
essential. Registration during the sales process
would enable the FAA to more easily enforce
the registration rule and would help make clear
to purchasers the responsibility in owning a
UAS. In the report, the FAA stated that it will
continue to regulate as necessary to ensure
safety, even beyond the ARC recommendations.
ALPA is part of the team pressing for safely
capitalizing on the economic opportunities that
UAS offer.
In October 2014, the Board of Directors
adopted ALPA’s strategic plan to provide a focus
for every action we take as well as a measure
for success (see page 25). In the case of all strategic plan priorities—including safely integrating
UAS, collective bargaining, and safeguarding
the shipment of lithium batteries by air––it will
take a team effort to do the job. Our success in
every element of the plan hinges on our ability
to work in unity to advance nimble strategies
and to watch carefully for changes in the economic and political environment.
Capt. Tim Canoll, ALPA President
WeighingIn
ASO Fuels ALPA’s Success
By Capt. Joe DePete, ALPA First Vice President
I
“[The] outstanding
work of the ASO not
only adds to ALPA’s
integrity and credibility, but also serves as
the very foundation of
what our organization
represents.”
’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again; the Air
Safety Organization (ASO) is one of the cornerstones of our Association. Powered by talented
and knowledgeable pilots and supported by ALPA’s
staff, the outstanding work of the ASO not only
adds to ALPA’s integrity and credibility, but also
serves as the very foundation of what our organization represents.
Our predecessors established this union to combat the widespread prevalence of safety concerns
in the airline industry at the time. And thanks
to the diligence and hard work of generations of
ALPA pilots, flying has become the safest mode of
transportation in the world.
Despite this phenomenal achievement, much
of the work we continue to do is motivated by the
need to advance safety, security, and pilot assistance. A quick glance at ALPA’s white paper, Keep
America Flying: A Flight Plan for Safe and Fair Skies,
outlines specific measures that ASO pilot reps are
currently spearheading.
For example, the bulk shipment of lithium batteries by air is an issue of particular concern to me as
a cargo pilot. We know lithium batteries are highly
combustible, extinguishing fires fueled by these cells
is highly problematic, and crews frequently don’t
know that they’re transporting them. For these reasons, ALPA reps continue to push the International
Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the U.S. and
Canadian governments for stricter regulations.
ALPA is a key player on the FAA’s Unmanned
Aircraft Systems (UAS) Registration Task Force
Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC), which was
established to make recommendations to implement a UAS registration requirement and process.
In addition, Capt. Tim Canoll, ALPA’s president, testified before Congress twice in October on the need
to address all aspects of UAS operations to protect
the safety of the U.S. national airspace system.
ALPA pilots are also engaged in NextGen planning and execution. The Association has reps on
the NextGen Advisory Committee, its subcommittees, and several RTCA groups. In Canada, we
continue to urge our colleagues at NAV CANADA
and Transport Canada to promote the use of precision approach and departure capabilities to our
northernmost airports.
Our union has a presence on the Pilot Fitness
Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC), tasked
with examining matters related to the awareness
and reporting of pilot emotional and mental health
issues. You may recall that this ARC was launched
in the wake of the Germanwings Flight 9525 tragedy. Our union is also involved in the Air Carrier
Training ARC and its Air Transport Pilot Working
Group, where we continue to advocate for quality
education and training standards.
On the security front, the Association continues
to collaborate with Airlines for America (A4A) and
the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
to expand and improve Known Crewmember
(KCM®). We are engaging with the TSA, A4A, and
Transport Canada on a test program to include Jazz
Aviation pilots as the first non-U.S. pilots to have
access to KCM.
Other ASO-related priorities include the mandatory installation of secondary cockpit barriers, the
continued promotion of the Federal Flight Deck
Officer program, science-based duty and fatigue
rules for all-cargo pilots, and ALPA’s commitment
to reduce aviation’s effect on the environment.
In pursuit of these and many other issues important to ALPA members, the ASO interacts with
stakeholders from industry and government to determine how we can improve the safety and security
of the airline industry. ALPA hosts several one-day
symposiums each year, like the recent Air Cargo
Symposium, to underscore targeted areas of concern,
highlight best practices, and foster discussion.
ALPA would not be able to pursue these interests
without the hundreds of pilot volunteers who perform the work of the ASO, but more help is needed.
In my years as an airline pilot, I have had the
privilege to fly with many intelligent and talented
professionals, and many of these individuals represent untapped resources for our Association. We
need what these pilots can contribute. We need to
grow and renew the human capital that is the ASO.
If you’re not already a pilot safety, security,
or pilot assistance volunteer, please consider
what you can offer and join us in this noble
effort. We all have something to give, and the
work you do will be something all pilots benefit
from. Join me and the other members of ALPA’s
ASO and help us leave our profession in better
condition than we found it.
PilotC mmentary
To learn more and
for ways to help,
please visit www.alpa.org.
How the Middle East 3 Affects
Low-Cost, Midsize Carriers
By F/O Philip Prada (Spirit)
O
ver the last decade, three Middle East
state-owned carriers (Emirates, Qatar, and
Etihad = ME3) have received more than
$42 billion in subsidies and other unfair benefits
from their governments. On the surface, it’s easy to
see why my fellow pilots who fly for low-cost carriers don’t believe this issue affects them. The initial
thought is that this only impacts international flying at the Big 3 U.S. airlines—American, Delta, and
United. But the tie is quite closely linked to low-cost
carriers and regionals. As a Spirit pilot, let me tell
you why I’m highly concerned about the ME3’s
influence on the low-cost carrier market.
While U.S. airlines compete fairly in our free
market, the ME3 carriers are cheating the system
and playing by their own rules. They want to
dominate the international air services market to
and from the U.S.—the largest, most lucrative air
service market in the world—and are cheating to
win. The schemes that the United Arab Emirates
(UAE) and Qatar governments use to infuse money
into their airlines include direct capital injections
and interest-free loans that have no repayment
schedule so that they never have to show a loss.
More than $3 billion was also spent on construction of Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport,
Emirates’ new, exclusive-use A380 hub.
In addition to the subsidies, the ME3 also probably saved about $3.1 billion in the last 10 years
by having nonunionized labor, because unions
are illegal in the UAE and Qatar. The New York
Times reported that labor conditions in the UAE
are on par with “indentured servitude.” According
to Qatar CEO Akbar Al Bakar, “If you didn’t have
unions, you wouldn’t have this jobless problem in
the western world.”
But what frightens me most is Etihad’s “equity
alliance” program. Using government subsidies,
Etihad purchases investments in many failing airlines. These airlines, including Air Berlin, Alitalia,
and Virgin Australia, weren’t able to turn a profit
for a reason. Instead of failing or changing, as
operators in the free market must, these airlines
are finding new life as feed for Etihad.
With the advantages noted above—all due
to government intervention on behalf of their
airlines—what will the ME3 do to our industry? If
allowed to continue their subsidized advance into
our market, what will stop them from not only
competing with the U.S. Big 3, but with low-cost
and midsized carriers as well? Let’s be honest, if
these carriers put a B-777 on such routes as FLL–
LIM, MIA–PTY, or PBI–AUA at a competitive price,
which airline would passengers choose? It’s not
just the Big 3 airlines that have to worry. We’re all
affected. And unless something is done, we’ll allow
the ME3 to become an unstoppable force.
We’ve already seen the results in other parts
of the world. Australian carrier Qantas has cut
back its own international flying after Emirates’
entry into the market, forcing Qantas to ally
with Emirates. European carriers are now cutting flying and laying off pilots because of vastly
increased ME3 services.
The ME3 argument is competition. If they
offer a better service for less, isn’t it just simple
competition—“just running an airline” as Qatar’s
CEO states? My own airline often makes similar
arguments. However, Spirit didn’t receive $42
billion in free money from our government. We’re
building our airline under the same rules everyone else is playing by—make a profit or die.
The U.S. Open Skies agreements have been
extremely beneficial to the United States. Open
Skies is meant to promote liberalization and
remove government interference from the international air service market and to ensure a fair
and equal opportunity to compete. But these same
Open Skies agreements that allow the ME3 to fly
here actually forbid these kinds of market-distorting government subsidies. We have the right to
tell these nations to play by the rules and operate
their airlines in a free market.
To do this, however, we all must be involved.
Our administration needs to be convinced that
this is a priority for all pilots and the entire U.S.
airline industry. Every pilot should do their
part by contributing to ALPA-PAC, taking part
in ALPA’s Calls to Action, and participating in
ALPA’s district advocacy program. Only through
all of us voicing the truth will we win on this and
every other pilot-partisan issue.
“[Unless] something
is done, we will allow
the ME3 to become an
unstoppable force.”
GuestC mmentary
Building
Influence
By Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky
T
“[As] advocates for
U.S. airlines and their
employees, we cannot give up our goal
of building influence
and making our collective voice heard....”
here are many tactics that help elevate a
message and push policy objectives. One
notable and proven strategy is tackling a
policy issue with a broad coalition of parties that
aren’t ordinarily aligned. For instance, when labor
and management—parties that are normally
on opposite sides of the negotiating table—join
forces, not just in name, but in discussions about
strategy and execution, they tend to get noticed.
The Partnership for Open & Fair Skies is such a
coalition. And since its creation at the start of this
year, the partnership has been an effective voice
for U.S. airlines and their workers. The partnership has focused on three state-owned Middle
East carriers—Emirates, Qatar, and Etihad—that
are using unprecedented amounts of subsidies to
exploit the open and unfettered access they receive
under Open Skies agreements with the United
States, which are premised on the elimination of
government-induced market distortions, including subsidies. Labor and management both view
this abuse of the agreements as a threat to the U.S.
airline industry, airline jobs, and the U.S. economy.
In the last 10 years, the United Arab Emirates
and Qatar have provided more than $42 billion
in subsidies that distort the international aviation marketplace. These numbers are facts—they
appear in Emirates’, Qatar’s, and Etihad’s own
financial statements. What else would you learn if
you read these financial statements? At least two
of the three airlines wouldn’t be commercially
viable if not for government subsidies. The third
would be smaller.
And what does more than $42 billion in government subsidies buy them? World-class airports,
new aircraft, and the ability to siphon international traffic from other airlines that don’t have
the luxury of billions of dollars from government
treasuries. The airport that’s currently under construction in Dubai, for example, will cost at least
$32 billion and be five times the size of Chicago
O’Hare International Airport. It’s being designed
to handle 100 A380s at the same time. That’s the
kind of unconstrained, untethered growth that
the subsidies make possible.
These subsidies are directed in such a way as to
allow the airlines to take traffic from U.S., European, and other carriers and to shift it to Middle
East hubs. Research has demonstrated that these
Middle East carriers are not meaningfully stimulating new traffic. Their growth is pure share
displacement. Shifting passengers to the Middle
East carriers and their hubs is what it’s all about.
Case in point: In November, Delta announced
the termination of its service between Atlanta,
Ga., and Dubai effective Feb. 11, 2016. The company said that cancellation of the service “comes
amid overcapacity on U.S. routes to the Middle
East operated by government-owned and subsidized airlines.” Delta had been losing money on
the route for two years, unable to compete on cost
with the subsidized Middle East carriers. With
each route lost or forgone by a U.S. airline, more
than 800 good jobs are lost.
The harm caused by the subsidies these carriers
receive is widespread. The Indian subcontinent
and the Middle East are largely off limits to U.S.
carriers, and transatlantic and transpacific routes
are under threat. The U.S. carriers and the men
and women who work in the airline industry
are at risk. If nothing is done, U.S. carriers will be
forced out of more routes, diminishing service,
degrading their networks, and harming a vital
national industry.
And that is just the effect on existing routes.
What about future growth? The Middle East carriers currently have almost 600 widebody aircraft
on firm order. The three major Chinese carriers—
serving a country with 1.3 billion people—have
fewer than 100 on order. Turkish Airlines—serving a country of 75 million—has 15. This vast
disparity underscores the Middle East carriers’
outlier status and the threat they pose to U.S. carriers and U.S. jobs.
Despite much evidence demonstrating clear
violations of the U.S. Open Skies agreements,
nothing comes easy in Washington, D.C., even
when the solution seems obvious, and rarely are
decisions or remedies swift. But as advocates for
U.S. airlines and their employees, we cannot give
up our goal of building influence and making our
collective voice heard on this critically important
issue that threatens not just jobs, but an entire
industry.
Ambassador Barshefsky was the U.S. Trade Representative
(USTR) from 1997–2001 and the deputy USTR from 1993–1996.
Airline Industry News
> DOMESTIC NEWS
According to the Associat-
ed Press, the U.S. and Mexico
have launched a test program
to reduce customs wait times
for cargo moving between
the two nations by having
cargo inspected once, in the
exporting country. Officials
say the program could reduce
wait times by as much as 80
percent and lower storage
costs and other expenses.
Air Cargo World reported
that FedEx is building a $112
million expansion at Milan
Malpensa Airport to accommodate its European growth
following its pending acquisition of TNT Express. The
115,000-square-foot facility
will employ 200 people and
process 20,000 packages
each day. When it’s completed in mid-2016, the facility
will be FedEx’s third largest
in Europe, behind its hubs in
Paris and Cologne.
Per USA Today, American
Airlines President Scott Kirby
recently announced that the
airline plans to offer a “product that has less frills” that
will allow it to be “competitive on price with ultra-lowcost carriers.”
The National Air Traf-
fic Controllers Association
noted that the FAA has failed
to hire its targeted number of
controllers for the fifth year
in a row. The FAA says it’s
having a hard time training
and hiring controllers because of budget uncertainty.
> INTERNATIONAL
NEWS
The Wall Street Journal
reported that Metrojet
Legislative Update
Lithium-Ion Batteries
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), the ranking
member of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee,
has called on the U.S. Department of
Transportation (DOT) to advocate for a
“temporary, but absolute ban” on the
transport of shipments of lithium-ion
batteries on passenger aircraft. DeFazio
urged the DOT to call for the ban because, in part, “The FAA’s own research
and testing have validated airlines’ and
airframe manufacturers’ safety concerns, and it would be foolish to disregard this research and expose the flying
public to unnecessary risk.… Thanks to
FAA testing, those risks are now certain
and beyond any debate.”
DeFazio’s announcement came as
the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) Dangerous Goods
Panel met in Montréal, Québec, Canada,
and failed to recommend a ban on
transporting lithium batteries aboard
aircraft. However, the panel did call for
a maximum charge on batteries shipped
as cargo and is working on new packaging standards for these batteries.
ALPA continues to work to fully
regulate all lithium batteries shipped
as cargo as part of its FAA reauthorization agenda.
Transatlantic Trade and
Investment Partnership
In mid-October, negotiators from
the Office of the United States Trade
Representative (USTR) and the EU
met to continue discussions on the
Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership (TTIP), an agreement that,
if completed, will be the largest freetrade deal in history. For ALPA, these
negotiations hold particular importance because the EU is attempting
to undermine U.S. foreign ownership
and control laws.
According to the EU’s public proposal, Europe is asking the U.S. to
»»eliminate foreign ownership and
control requirements as they per-
Flight 9268, an Airbus A321,
crashed on October 31 after
taking off from the Red Sea
resort of Sharm El-Sheikh in
Egypt, bound for St. Petersburg, Russia. The flight’s
cockpit voice recorder and
flight data recorder have
been recovered and are being
studied.
According to Bloomberg
News, China is considering
several plans to consolidate
Air China Ltd., China Southern Airlines Company, and
China Eastern Airlines Corporation that could include
merging the cargo operations
or passenger business of
some or all of the airlines,
tain to Europeans, allowing, for the
first time in history, U.S. airlines to
move their headquarters outside
of the country and endangering the
U.S. Civil Reserve Air Fleet.
»»facilitate the entrance of Norwegian
Air International (NAI) and other
flag-of-convenience operators into
the American market, thus undermining labor standards and putting
downward pressure on wages and
benefits.
»»allow wet-leasing of European aircraft
to U.S. carriers on domestic routes.
»»enable foreign control over flight
planning, flight operation, and crew
administration.
These changes would seriously
undermine ALPA’s efforts to safeguard U.S. airline pilot jobs and promote the U.S. airline industry. ALPA
continues to work to ensure that air
transportation services are excluded
from the TTIP.
» Front Lines
or combining at least two of
the airlines altogether. If the
three airlines are combined,
the resulting entity would
have more than 1,000 airplanes, trailing only American,
Delta, and United.
TravelPulse reported
that Air Canada is asking the
Canadian government to not
allow any new flights to the
country by Emirates Airline
and Etihad Airways, saying,
“There is enough capacity...
between the two markets.”
Per Bloomberg Business,
the Mitsubishi Regional Jet,
the first passenger airplane
developed in Japan in more
than half a century, made its
debut flight on November 10.
Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation
has 407 orders for two versions of the airplane, with the
first models due for delivery to
All Nippon Airways Co. in the
second quarter of 2017.
Front Lines
\\ ALPA Renews Calls to
Safeguard Air Transport
Of Lithium Batteries
At a recent meeting, the
International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO) Dangerous Goods Panel failed
to recommend a ban on
lithium-ion battery shipments
on passenger airliners until
adequate safety regulations
are in place. ALPA has made
clear that it’s disappointed
with the panel’s decision.
While ALPA commends the
panel for recommending that
all rechargeable batteries
be transported at no more
than a 30 percent charge
10» Air Line Pilot December 2015
and that the combination of
small packages of excepted
batteries no longer be accepted, unlimited quantities
of regulated lithium-ion batteries are still permitted on
aircraft. Because of this, ALPA
is calling for an interim ban to
safeguard air transportation.
“In light of the number of
airliner fires that lithium batteries have either caused or
intensified, pilots’ lives lost,
and the concern expressed by
airlines and aircraft manufacturers, it’s unacceptable that
the ICAO Dangerous Goods
Panel did not recommend to
ban their shipment by air until
we have adequate regulations
to ensure safety,” said Capt.
Tim Canoll, ALPA’s president.
The ICAO Air Navigation
Commission will act on the
recommendations from the
ICAO Dangerous Goods Panel
at a future meeting, and the
ICAO Council will ultimately
make a final policy decision
for the organization at a
future date.
“Until ICAO develops improved packaging regulations
for the shipment of lithium
batteries by air that guarantee
that lithium battery fires will
not spread, an interim ban on
shipping them on all aircraft
is essential to safeguarding
air transportation,” continued
Canoll. ALPA was involved in
the ICAO process through its
membership in the International Federation of Air Line
Pilots’ Associations. “We
hope that ICAO will ultimately
make the right decision for
protecting passengers, crews,
and cargo by instituting an interim ban on shipping lithium
batteries by air.”
In October, the FAA
announced that it would
support an interim ban on all
cargo shipments of lithium
batteries on passenger airliners. Several U.S. airlines will
no longer accept shipments
of lithium-ion batteries as
cargo. Both Boeing and Airbus
have contacted their customers about the risk of carrying
high-density shipments of
lithium batteries as cargo.
In the FAA Modernization
and Reform Act of 2012,
Congress stated that the
Department of Transportation
secretary may exceed ICAO
requirements regarding transportation of lithium batteries
only when a credible report
from a national or international government demonstrates that lithium batteries
on an aircraft contributed to
the initiation or propagation
of an onboard fire.
In 2010, an all-cargo
aircraft carrying more than
80,000 lithium batteries
crashed near Dubai International Airport. The United
Arab Emirates government’s
accident investigation identified the lithium batteries on
board as contributing to the
accident that resulted in the
loss of both pilots’ lives.
“The findings of the
investigation on the all-cargo
accident near Dubai International Airport are more than
adequate evidence of the
risk; now Congress must act
to give the Department of
Transportation the authority
to fully regulate all lithium
batteries, including those
carried aboard all-cargo
aircraft,” continued Canoll.
“The United States must fully
regulate lithium batteries
as hazardous materials and
ensure that the full range of
safety protections is applied
to safeguard passengers,
crews, and cargo.”
\\ ALPA Presses Congress to Increase FAA
Oversight of All UAS
On October 28, Capt. Tim
Canoll, ALPA’s president,
testified before the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee’s Transportation, Housing,
and Urban Development
(THUD) Subcommittee on the
urgent need to address all
aspects of unmanned aircraft
systems (UAS) operations to
protect the safety of the U.S.
national airspace system.
Canoll praised Sen. Dianne
�Take Action to Protect Your
Career!
CALL TO
ACTION
ALPA is urging pilots to participate in the Association’s latest Call to Action to ask U.S. President Barack Obama to open consultations with
the governments of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
To date, more than 5,000 pilots have joined the call. It’s
up to each ALPA member to inform the U.S. government
that it’s time to stop deliberating and move this issue
forward to protect the North American airline industry
from unfair competition.
Tell the administration to enforce U.S. Open Skies
agreements by going to www.alpa.org/advocacy and
taking part in ALPA’s Open Skies Call to Action.
Top photo: Chris Weaver
 Capt. Tim Canoll, ALPA’s president,
testifies before Congress about the
need to regulate all operations of
unmanned aircraft systems.
Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) leadership on the issue, including
introducing the Consumer
Drone Safety Act, which calls
for proper equipage and
enforcement.
“Pilot reports released
by the FAA this summer
make clear that more UAS
encounters are happening,”
Canoll said. “The number of
near-miss events that have
occurred in such a short
period of time highlights the
risk, and the growth in the use
of UAS means that the hazard
will only increase.”
While ALPA supports
advancing America’s competitiveness through the use of
UAS, safety is paramount. The
Association continues to work
with stakeholders on establishing a framework that maintains safety while capitalizing
on economic opportunities.
Canoll highlighted ongoing
efforts to safely integrate
UAS, including ALPA’s fourpart action plan with focused
efforts on education, registration, technology, and penalties and enforcement. Canoll
also lauded Department of
Transportation Secretary
Anthony Foxx’s recent decision to create a national UAS
registration database and
accepted Secretary Foxx’s
invitation to participate on a
UAS registration task force.
Canoll noted, “ALPA is
pleased to participate on the
task force, but the sheer number of UAS anticipated to be
sold in the near future means
we need swift action. As noncommercial and recreational
UAS operations appear to be
the primary source of recent
reports, we urge Congress to
direct the FAA to regulate the
UAS operated for recreation
and hobby.”
On November 21, the task
force, which reviewed and
developed requirements for
UAS registration, completed
and submitted its report to the
FAA.
\\ ALPA Addresses
Global Issues with
Norwegian Parliament
At the end of October, ALPA
participated in a panel
discussion at the Norwegian
Parliament that addressed
a number of global airline
issues, including atypical
employment models, fair
competition regulations,
labor laws schemes, a level
playing field, and flight- and
duty-time regulations.
“The lack of harmonization on the 28 sets of labor
laws in the EU will continue
to encourage European
corporations with the right of
establishment to shop around
for the most corporate-laborfriendly environment within
the European Union,” said
Capt. Alfredo Suarez (United)
during the open skies and fair
competition discussions.
Suarez also highlighted
the importance of pilot
groups like the Associations
of Star Alliance Pilots coming
together to advocate for the
airline piloting profession at
all levels of government, in-
dustry, and employee groups.
Jim Johnson, a manager
in ALPA’s Legal Department
and one of the union’s many
subject-matter experts in
airline safety, spoke about
one level of safety at the
global level. He stressed the
importance of maintaining a
high standard for flight-time
limits in Europe, given a new
scheme to be implemented in
the first quarter of 2016.
Ana McAhron-Schulz,
director of ALPA’s Economic
& Financial Analysis Department, also participated in the
discussions. While Torbjørn
Lothe, the director of the
Norwegian Employer Federation, indicated that harmonizing labor laws in the EU was
nearly impossible, McAhronSchulz pointed out that “the
degree of difficulty should
not discourage politicians and
industry leaders from acting
on behalf of the workers.”
\\ ALPA Brings North
American Pilots’
Perspective to GATE
Conference
During the recent Gulf Aviation Training Event (GATE),
ALPA Air Safety Organization
(ASO) pilot leaders made
clear the Association’s views
on training and the multicrew
pilot license (MPL). Capt.
Charles Hogeman (United),
ALPA’s ASO Aviation Safety
chairman; and Capt. Dave
McKenney (United), the ASO’s
director of Pilot Training,
Automation, and Human
Factors, were invited to speak
on two panels during the
conference, which was held
November 10–11 during the
Dubai Airshow in the United
Arab Emirates.
“Rather than focusing on automation training, we need to
focus on flight path management training,” said McKenney
during the Automation and
Human Factors panel, which
was held on the first day of
the conference and discussed
whether airlines should
review training standards and
operating procedures in light
of past and recent accidents
such as Air France Flight 447
and Asiana Flight 214.
“How we train flight path
management is as important as what we train,” said
McKenney to attendees of the
panel, which was moderated
by Capt. Martin Mahoney,
senior vice president of flight
training and operations for
Emirates Airline. Other speakers on the panel represented
Airbus, Royal Jordanian Airlines, and Virgin Australia.
On the second day of the
conference, Hogeman spoke
about ALPA’s concerns regarding pilot training and qualification and specifically on the
MPL as well as the positive aspects of ab initio training. The
panel titled “MPL Ab Initio––Is
This the Way Forward?” was
moderated by Capt. Ed Davidson, president and COO of
National Airlines, and included
representatives of Alpha Aviation Academy, Etihad Airways,
and Frasca International.
 Capt. Charles Hogeman (United),
second from right, takes part in the
Gulf Aviation Training Event held in
the United Arab Emirates.
 F/O Ken Binder (FedEx Express),
ALPA’s National R&I Committee
chairman, opens the R&I Seminar.
“We want high quality
when it comes to the men and
women who fly airplanes––
the traveling and shipping
public demand it,” Hogeman
told attendees. He explained
that training for the MPL is
competency based, but more
work needs to be done to
quantify training skills that
develop situational awareness, problem definition
and problem solving, and
decision-making required of
airline pilots.
“We shouldn’t let industry talk of a ‘pilot shortage’
affect the development of
sound training and licensing
standards for airline pilots,”
Hogeman underscored.
GATE is held annually to
discuss the challenges of
meeting the demand for
pilots and maintenance personnel in the Middle East.
\\ ALPA Presents Action
Plan at UAS Conference
On November 10, Capt. Steve
Jangelis (Delta), ALPA’s Air
Safety Organization Airport
and Ground Environment
Group chairman, presented
ALPA’s unmanned aircraft
systems (UAS) perspectives at the UAS Issues and
Integration Conference in Las
Vegas, Nev. He conveyed the
Association’s safety concerns
about UAS integration, noting that there’s a significant
difference between the risks
associated with an aircraft
striking a “soft” bird versus
a UAS made of metal, plastic,
and composites. Jangelis also
explained ALPA’s four-part
action plan to safely integrate
UAS with focused efforts
on education, registration,
technology, and penalties and
enforcement.
Hosted by the American
Association of
Airport Executives,
the conference was
attended by pilots,
airport and airline
executives, government representatives, academia, and
UAS operators, among others.
\\ R&I Seminar Highlights Important Member
Benefit Considerations
Thirty pilot representatives
from 12 ALPA pilot groups
attended the Association’s
biennial Retirement and
Insurance (R&I) Seminar on
November 11–12 to learn
more about the union’s
policies, protections, and
programs as they relate to
ALPA member/family wellbeing. “These subject-matter
experts are some of the most
sought-after people in our
organization,” said Capt. Tim
Canoll, ALPA’s president,
during his opening remarks
about ALPA’s many member
R&I representatives and
the invaluable service they
perform.
Dovetailing with Canoll’s
comments, F/O Ken Binder
(FedEx Express), ALPA’s National R&I Committee chairman, added, “We are the folks
who nobody knows they need
until they need us.” Binder
explained that ALPA’s R&I volunteers are often contacted
for the first time as a result of
a medical emergency, death
in the family, or other crisis.
The two-day conference
featured presentations on
benefit plan design and best
practices, important legal and
actuarial considerations, member investment opportunities,
and a host of other thoughtprovoking topics. Conference participants heard from
representatives of the Segal
Company, who talked about
the anticipated effects of the
40 percent nondeductible
excise tax on “Cadillac” health
plans, scheduled to take effect
in 2018.
Among the other presentations, a representative with
Health Care Service Corporations explained how wellness
programs offer incentives
like premium discounts, gym
memberships, and other advantages to participants. In addition, investment strategists
with Northern Trust examined
the latest trends in definedcontribution plan offerings.
During the two-day conference, participating pilots
met with members of ALPA’s
professional staff, learned
about ALPA’s member benefit
plans, and networked with
senior management representatives from Guardian Life,
MetLife, Charles Schwab, and
investment consulting firm
NEPC. The seminar agenda
concluded with a discussion about the advantages
of ALPA-sponsored member
benefits plans. To learn more
about these plans, log on to
the members-only site of
www.alpa.org and click on
the ALPA Insurance tab.
\\ Your ALPA Membership Card Is Now an
E-Card
You can now access your
ALPA membership card on
your mobile device, which
makes your card available
whenever you need your
member number. Visit www.
alpa.org/apps at any time
on your smartphone and
click the download link for
your device. Or open the app
store on your device, search
ALPA, and download the app
directly.
ALPA encourages members to download the app for
access to their membership
card as well as all the other
great tools the app provides.
If you have questions, please
contact Membership@alpa.
org or call 1-888-FLY-ALPA.
\\ CommutAir Pilots
Reach Agreement as
Company Announces
Refleeting
On November 9, CommutAir
pilots announced they’d
reached a tentative agreement with management, the
same day the airline unveiled
a new deal with its mainline
partner to almost triple in size
and add jets to its fleet.
The pilots’ Master Executive Council (MEC)
unanimously endorsed the
agreement and is sending it
to the airline’s 180 pilots for
ratification. The four-year
agreement would include
double-digit pay increases
for captains and first officers, lower health insurance
premiums, higher company
retirement contributions, and
improved work rules.
ALPA negotiators reached
the agreement only two
months after opening negotiations, according to Capt.
John Bassett, the pilots’ MEC
chairman.
“Although this round of
contract negotiations was
completed very quickly, we
did not sacrifice quality for
speed. The Negotiating Committee was organized and
thoroughly prepared,” Bassett said. “We were further
assisted by the company’s
Photo: Chris Weaver
» Front Lines
willingness to work quickly,
hold frequent negotiating
sessions, and rapidly address
our concerns in light of the
current pilot hiring market.
The result is a major leap
forward in almost all aspects
of our current collective bargaining agreement.”
CommutAir also publicized
a new agreement with United
Airlines to begin operating
50-seat Embraer regional jets
in early 2016. The airline currently flies 22 Dash 8-Q200
and -Q300 turboprops, and
the agreement with United
would bring 40 ERJ 145s into
the fleet. CommutAir’s deal
with United also includes a
career-progression arrangement in which CommutAir
pilots will have a path to jobs
at the mainline if they meet
United’s hiring standards and
other conditions.
\\ ALPA’s SPSC Hosts
Photo: Eric Davis
Workshop
ALPA’s Strategic Preparedness and Strike Committee
(SPSC) welcomed more than
75 participants to ALPA’s
Herndon, Va., offices in late
October for a workshop
themed “Strategy Into Action:
Coordinated Maneuvers.”
ALPA leaders, master executive council (MEC) leaders,
committee chairmen, and
pilot volunteers from 13 pilot
groups who lend support
to the negotiations process
collaborated with ALPA staff
throughout the two-day training event.
Participants heard from
Capt. Tim Canoll, ALPA’s
president, on the state of
the union, Representation
Department staff on the
necessity for strategic planning before embarking on any
SPSC activity, and Economics
& Financial Analysis Department staff on changes in the
negotiating environment and
why they matter.
The SPSC then divided
pilots and staff into the first
of three “think tanks.” Topics
included a strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat
analysis; action planning; social media; and unity building.
Reports that summarized the
discussion were then given to
all attendees.
“One of our key goals was
to demonstrate to volunteers just how important it
is to coordinate activities in
any effort,” said Capt. Brian
Florence (United), ALPA’s
SPSC chairman. “We focused
information on building
relationships to support MEC
goals, developing innovative
communication strategies,
and being aware of legal
parameters that must govern
all decisions.”
The second think-tank session gave pilots an opportunity to delve into possible
SPSC scenarios and discuss
strategies for dealing with
stalled negotiations, a strike,
a shutdown, a Presidential
Emergency Board, and a tentative agreement.
The third think tank allowed volunteers who work
in the same discipline to meet
and share ideas.
“Our game plan for this
workshop was derived from
the feedback we received
from our 2013 SPSC Sum-
mit,” said Florence. “Our
volunteers wanted additional
training to help them do their
jobs better, to understand the
resources at their disposal,
and to have more time to talk
to each other.”
\\ FFD Pilot Groups
Come Together to
Discuss Common Issues
In October, ALPA’s Fee-forDeparture (FFD) Committee
hosted a group meeting of
the FFD pilot groups in ALPA’s
Herndon, Va., offices, with
representatives from Delta,
JetBlue, and United also
attending to support their
fellow ALPA pilots.
“All of the fee-for-departure master executive councils are able to come together
to identify common threats
and use ALPA’s resources
and create strategic plans to
address these issues,” said
Capt. Paul Ryder (ExpressJet),
ALPA’s FFD Committee chairman and national resource
coordinator.
The meeting covered the
three main focuses of the
FFD Committee—career
progression, career protection, and pay and benefits.
Pilot representatives also
shared success stories, issues,
and concerns at their pilot
groups. Discussions included
property updates, collective bargaining strategy, and
improving communications
and the use of social media.
Committee members and
ALPA staff also reported on
advocacy efforts and the state
of the airline industry.
ALPA
Negotiations
Update
The following is a summary of the
status of ALPA contract negotiations by airline as of November 23:
Air Transat—A notice to bargain
was filed on Dec. 30, 2014. Negotiations continue December 9–10.
Air Transport International—A
Section 6 notice was received on
Dec. 5, 2014. Negotiations have
been postponed until the first
quarter of 2016.
Air Wisconsin—A Section 6 notice
was filed on Oct. 1, 2010. Air Wisconsin filed for mediation on June
17, 2013. Pilots and management
reached a tentative agreement on
August 4. The pilots rejected the
tentative agreement on October 7.
Atlantic Southeast—A Section
6 notice was filed on May 20,
2010. A joint Atlantic Southeast/
ExpressJet Section 6 notice was
filed on March 28, 2011. The pilots
rejected a tentative agreement on
Jan. 14, 2014. An application for
joint mediation was filed on Feb.
12, 2014. Mediation is under way.
Bearskin—A notice to bargain was
filed on Aug. 31, 2015. Negotiations continue December 8–10.
CommutAir—A Section 6 notice
was filed on Sept. 2, 2015. Pilots
and management have reached a
tentative agreement.
Delta—A Section 6 notice
was filed on April 6. Pilots and
management reached a tentative
agreement on June 4. The pilots
rejected the tentative agreement
on July 10.
ExpressJet—A Section 6 notice
was filed on May 20, 2010. A joint
Atlantic Southeast/ExpressJet Section 6 notice was filed on March
28, 2011. The pilots rejected a tentative agreement on Jan. 14, 2014.
An application for joint mediation
was filed on Feb. 12, 2014. Mediation is under way.
First Air—A notice to bargain was
filed on Aug. 31, 2015. First conferences to be scheduled.
Hawaiian—A Section 6 notice was
filed on Feb. 17, 2015. Negotiations continue December 7–11
and 14–18.
JetBlue—A Section 6 notice was
filed on March 2, 2015. Negotiations continue December 8–10;
Jan. 11–13, 2016; February 9–11;
and March 15–17.
Mesa—A Section 6 notice was
filed on Sept. 10, 2010. Pilots and
management reached a tentative
agreement on July 23. The pilots
rejected the tentative agreement
on October 2.
Spirit—A Section 6 notice was
filed on April 28, 2015. Negotiations are under way.
 Fee-for-departure reps gather in
ALPA’s Herndon, Va., offices.
» News Round Up
New ALPA
Reps
As of November 10, the Election
Ballot and Certification Board
certified election results for the
following local councils:
• Atlantic Southeast 116 F/O Tyler J. Hover, Vice Chairman
(F/O Rep)
• JetBlue 191 Capt. Mona
Cates, Vice Chairman (Capt.
Rep)
• JetBlue 191 F/O Donn E. Minoggie, Secretary-Treasurer
(F/O Rep)
• JetBlue 191 F/O Gannett K.
Jean, F/O Rep
In Memoriam
“To fly west, my friend, is a flight we all must take for a final check.”—Author unknown
2000
Capt. Leo G. Angevine
United
March
2014
Capt. William M. Tew
Continental
April
Capt. Johnny H. BoardmanContinental
August
Capt. Lou G. Dionne
Frontier
November
Capt. E.R. McAleer
Northwest
December
October
October
Capt. Douglas L. Eye
Delta
October
Capt. Virgil C. Fey
Delta
October
Capt. Robert W. Kitchen
Delta
October
Capt. John A. Nevelle
Northwest
October
Capt. Lucas G. Ritschl
Piedmont
July
Capt. John W. Bethel
Pan American
September
4
Capt. Derek R. Charles
TWA
September
Capt. Christopher J. Clark TWA
September
Capt. Robert T. McClellan Northwest
September
Capt. William J. McKeown, Jr.
September
6
5127394
8
3675419
Capt. Samuel G. Myers
US Airways
September
791 3 42 856
S/O William I. Newman
TWA
September
5 46 819
Capt. Kenneth G. Pullan
TWA
September
732
September
September
Flying Tigers/
FedEx Express
July
957234681
2
Capt. John L. Whisenand Northwest
September
Capt. David J. Erickson
US Airways
September
8
United
October
Capt. Charles R. Logan
Delta
Capt. David G. Suits
American Eagle
Northwest
174 593268
September
F/O Ronald D. Suermann Emery
Capt. Michael E. Davis
Capt. Gerald L. Baker
329 468 175
September
Envoy Air
March
August
981547
Eastern
Capt. Scott E. Shuster
October
TWA
632
Capt. C.R. Shoop
Delta
Capt. Kevin C. Lowery
8756923
September
Continental
August
1
September
Eastern
Capt. John T. Blackis
Capt. Philipp H. Baumann United
Solution to this month’s
ALPA sudoku on page 38.
Northwest
Capt. Charles F. Sexton
F/O William H. Cleino
2015
Capt. Richard H. Peeples Pan American
Capt. Lester F. Reinig
F/O Geoffrey S. Rezutko Mesaba
October
Capt. Ernest H. Schnaak
Eastern
October
F/O Bruce J. Skibby
TWA
October
Capt. Charles J. Smith
ATA
October
Compiled from information provided by ALPA’s Membership
Administration Department
TakingOff
ALPA’s Overall Mission
As I reviewed the article in this issue that
summarizes ALPA’s strategic plan (see
page 25), one thought kept reoccurring to
me throughout the eight delegate committee summaries: Wow! A combination of
ALPA members and staff did all of this in
one year. And despite the fact that there’s
been significant turnover this year for
elected pilot leaders at the local executive council and the master executive council levels, ALPA’s
priorities, by and large, remain the same. To me, this means that
ALPA’s strategic plan hit the mark in developing and executing
priorities that continue to be in the best interest of the entire
airline piloting profession.
This goal can only be achieved through a strong combination
of ALPA pilots and staff who continue to work to strengthen our
union, maintain tried-and-true safety and security standards
even though others attempt to roll them back, and seek ways
to improve a pilot’s quality of life whether through collective
bargaining or a legislative solution.
The priorities of our union continue to change and adapt to
the current needs of our pilots—and ALPA’s strategic plan is
evidence of this. For instance, when we need to focus on allcargo operations—due to heightened awareness brought about
by current events—we’re able to seize the opportunity, adapt
our plan, and reiterate our ongoing position of one level of
safety for all airline operations. It’s our ability to pivot quickly,
effect a positive change, and still stay the course that makes
ALPA the relevant, influential union that it is today.
However, seeking ways to advance our profession, as
documented by our current strategic plan, is not the only way
we grow. Our strategic plan also provides us an informal way
to chronicle the union’s agility. As we embark on the union’s
85th anniversary, I’m honored to be a part of an association
that decidedly lives and breathes its overall mission to provide
its members service in three critical areas: airline safety and
security, representation, and advocacy. And I’m proud of our
staff members, as well as the airline pilots who we unceasingly
support, who work to achieve the best results for all members
of the Air Line Pilots Association, International.
Lori Garver, General Manager
Lori.Garver@alpa.org
» Market Stats
U.S. Passenger Airlines ASM Growth 2010–2015
1,080
1,060
1,020
1,000
980
2Q15
1Q15
4Q14
3Q14
2Q14
1Q14
4Q13
3Q13
2Q13
1Q13
4Q12
3Q12
2Q12
1Q12
4Q11
3Q11
2Q11
1Q11
4Q10
3Q10
2Q10
960
SOURCE: Data shown on a rolling four-quarter basis. BTS, T2, ALPA E&FA
Rolling Four-Quarter Change in ASMs by Airplane Type
Narrowbody Jet
Widebody Jet
Regional Jet/Props
1.5%
1.0%
0.5%
0.0%
-0.5%
-1.0%
U.S. Passenger Airlines, Seats Per Airplane
Narrowbody - LHS
Regional Jet/Props - RHS
155.0
63.0
154.0
62.0
153.0
61.0
152.0
151.0
60.0
150.0
59.0
149.0
58.0
2Q15
1Q15
4Q14
3Q14
2Q14
1Q14
4Q13
3Q13
2Q13
1Q13
4Q12
3Q12
2Q12
1Q12
4Q11
3Q11
2Q11
1Q11
4Q10
3Q10
148.0
2Q10
As 2015 comes to an end, it looks as if the the U.S. airline
industry is on track to make a pretax profit for the sixth
consecutive year. While the industry remains cyclical and
it’s unknown when a significant downturn may come, it’s
not unusual to see airlines add capacity in an upcycle.
Historically, growth has come from adding airplanes to
the overall fleet; but in today’s cycles, this capacity growth
may be coming from other, more efficient methods.
Looking at the latest upcycle, it’s evident that capacity,
measured in available seat miles (ASM), has been growing. Total capacity is up nearly 10 percent from mid-2010
to mid-2015.
Narrowbody jets have seen the biggest change in
capacity, growing almost 15 percent, while capacity in
widebody jets has grown 5 percent during this upcycle.
The fee-for-departure sector of the industry has seen
much more variation in its growth pattern. Regional jet
capacity is down 2 percent, while turboprop capacity is
down 28 percent.
Part of the growth in capacity is due to more airplanes,
but not all of the growth is because of this. Overall fleet
growth is up only about 3 percent, with narrowbody
airplanes up just 2 percent. Fee-for-departure fleets have
grown 15 percent, but utilization is down 20 percent—so
net block hours are down as well. So what’s causing the
increase in capacity?
The growth seems to be due more in part to an increase in the number of seats per airplane. Each airplane
type has experienced upgauging since mid-2010. The
biggest changes have been in the fee-for-departure
sector—reducing 50-seat jets and replacing them with
more fuel-efficient 70- and 76-seat jets. Narrowbody jets
are seeing a 4 percent increase in gauge, while widebody
airplanes have seen a 2 percent increase in gauge.
1,040
Billions
Capacity Growth
MARKETWATCH
AIRLINES
PARENT COMPANY
Virgin America
Virgin America, Inc.1
JetBlue
JetBlue Airways Corporation
Hawaiian
Hawaiian Holdings, Inc.
Atlantic Southeast, ExpressJet SkyWest, Inc.
Alaska
Alaska Air Group, Inc.
Bearskin, Calm Air
Exchange Income Corporation
Delta, Endeavor Air
Delta Air Lines
Air Transport International
Air Transport Services Group, Inc.
Jazz Aviation Chorus Aviation
TSX: CHR.B
United United Continental Holdings, Inc. NYSE: UAL
Envoy Air, Piedmont, PSA
American Airlines Group, Inc.
NASDAQ: AAL
FedEx Express
FedEx Corporation
Air Transat
Transat A.T., Inc.
Spirit
Spirit Airlines, Inc. 1
STOCK SYMBOL
10/31/14
10/30/15
NASDAQ: VA
--
$35.61
% CHG.
N/A
NASDAQ: JBLU
$11.54
$24.84
115.3%
NASDAQ: HA
$17.34
$34.70
100.1%
NASDAQ: SKYW
$11.52
$19.04
65.3%
NYSE: ALK
$52.65
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» On the Record
“With future improvements, we could
see more than $130 billion in additional
savings over the same 15-year period.
These will come from avoided delays and
cancellations, reduced flight times, fuel
savings, and other benefits.”
—commented Anthony Foxx, Department of Transportation secretary, during the
recent Air Traffic Control Association Conference and Exposition regarding the implementation of NextGen
—said Paul Rinaldi, National Air
Traffic Controllers Association president, in a recent issue of The Hill
regarding an air traffic controllers’
shortage
The quotes on this page are
compiled from congressional
testimony, speeches, news
clips, and other public
documents. ALPA does
not necessarily endorse
these views but rather is
informing members of recent
statements by significant
industry stakeholders.
—said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Me.) at
the recent Senate Appropriations
Subcommittee on Transportation,
Housing, and Urban Development
hearing titled “Integrating
Unmanned Aircraft Systems
Technology into the National
Airspace System”
“It isn’t just the major markets that are at
risk. When a U.S. carrier is forced to cut
an international route because they can
no longer compete, service to smaller
communities is at risk.”
—commented Sara Nelson, AFA-CWA president, regarding the billions of dollars
in subsidies and benefits that Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar have received from their
governments during the last 10 years that violate U.S. Open Skies agreements
Photo:
“Bureaucratic inertia
is slowing the hiring
process, and at the
worst possible time.
The number of fully
certified air traffic
controllers is at the
lowest level in 27
years.”
“It is evident that
we need to strike
a balance in
the regulation of
unmanned aircraft
systems that
recognizes their
legitimate uses
by responsible
owners versus
the dangerous
intrusions caused
by irresponsible
operators.”
Air Line Pilot Feature Article » 2015 PHOTOGRAPHY ISSUE
“Photography takes an instant out of time,
altering life by holding it still.”
—DOROTHEA LANGE, AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHER
5th Annual
PHOTOGRAPHY ISSUE
Photo:
Highlighting
moments in an
airline pilot’s
day and night.
For the fifth consecutive
year, Air Line Pilot has the
privilege of showcasing
the photography skills of
our talented members.
It’s become a tradition
we all look forward to.
From the air* and on the
ground, airline pilots have
the distinct opportunity
to capture wondrous moments that are gone in a
blink of an eye. Thank you
to all ALPA members who
submitted photographs
for this edition and for
“sharing your instant out
of time.”
Background photo: A mountain range
near Las Vegas, Nev., by Capt. David
Ziegler (Compass).
Above: The moment of rotation for a
loaded FedEx Express B-777 departing
Ted Stevens Anchorage International
Airport bound for Memphis, Tenn., by
Capt. Angelo Bufalino (FedEx Express).
*Air Line Pilot staff selected photos for publication based on adherence to all FAA and Transport
Canada regulations.
“The most beautiful dream that has haunted the
heart of man since Icarus is today reality.”
LOUIS BLÉRIOT, FRENCH AVIATOR
Above: Early
morning at Kansas
City International
Airport by F/O
Mike Wasserberger
(ExpressJet).
Left: A First Air ATR 42
taxiing off the runway
at Pond Inlet Airport
in Nunavut, Canada,
by Capt. Jason Miller
(First Air).
Background photo:
A CRJ200 parked at
the gate at Detroit
Metropolitan Airport
by F/O Joseph Patton
(Endeavor Air).
Below: A United
B-737 during a walkaround at Denver
International Airport
by Capt. Mark Carter
(United).
“There’s nothing like an airport for bringing you down to Earth.”
RICHARD GORDON, AMERICAN ASTRONAUT
Above: A Dash 8 sits under
stormy skies at Québec City
Jean Lesage International
Airport by F/O Jean-Philippe
Drouin (Jazz Aviation).
Photo: An Alaska B-737 winglet midflight
while commuting home from Ted Stevens
Anchorage International Airport around sunset
by Capt. Bob Cummins (Alaska).
Background photo: During
a walk-around on the ramp
at Lincoln Airport near
Lincoln, Neb., by F/O Mike
Wasserberger (ExpressJet).
Above: A thunderstorm dissipates as dawn greets a Delta
B-757 at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International
Airport by F/O Greg Bartley (Delta).
Left: Deadheading on a flight into Seattle–Tacoma
International Airport by F/O Erin Recke (Alaska).
“For pilots sometimes see behind the curtain, behind the veil of gossamer
velvet, and find the truth behind man, the force behind a universe.”
RICHARD BACH, AMERICAN WRITER, IN BIPLANE
Background photo:
Early-morning preflight
looking below a B-767
by F/O George Chetcuti
(Hawaiian).
Right: Morning push
at Luis Muñoz Marin
International Airport in
San Juan, Puerto Rico,
by F/O Armando Lasa
(JetBlue).
Above: Immersed in a deep
blue sky, a Spirit A319 departs Minneapolis–St. Paul
International Airport by
F/O Eric Cowan (Delta).
Above: An Airbus A330-200 taxiing after landing at Gatwick Airport
in London, England, by F/O Francis Kawa (Air Transat).
Background photo: Flying deadhead into Newark Liberty
International Airport aboard a United B-737, with a great view
of the Freedom Tower and lower Manhattan by F/O Colton Daum
(ExpressJet).
“Man must rise above the Earth—to the top of the atmosphere
and beyond—for only thus will he fully understand the world
in which he lives.”
SOCRATES, GREEK PHILOSOPHER
Air Line Pilot Feature Article » STRATEGIC PLAN
ALPA’s
Strategic Plan
Progress
Report:
By ALPA Strategic Planning Committee
Illustration: Susan Boulter
E
very day that we report to work, we prepare for
our trips by reviewing our flight plan. This and
other information help ensure that we’re able to
do our jobs safely and effectively. As with our jobs in the
cockpit, we need to be vigilant running our union. This
is why ALPA has a strategic plan. It’s our flight plan.
ALPA’s strategic plan provides a focus for every action
we take as well as a measure of our success. It defines
where we’ve been, where we are, where we need to go,
and how we’re going to get there. Without it, we’d be
grounded—spinning our wheels and watching others
define our profession and industry.
ALPA’s Board of Directors (BOD) developed and unanimously adopted our current strategic plan at the BOD
meeting in 2014. There, delegates actively engaged in the
strategic-planning process to debate and determine the
priorities that would help shape the future of our union
and our profession. They focused on eight key areas
aimed to further strengthen our union and maintain its
relevance.
Since then, ALPA’s national officers, committee chairmen, department directors, and other subject-matter
experts have collaborated to develop initiatives and
implement tactics to achieve the collective goals of our
members. This plan is a living document and is reevaluated on a regular basis.
Now that we’re a year into the plan, let’s take a look
at some of the progress that’s been made. Keep in mind
that this is only a sampling of activities. For the full
report or to track how issues have evolved over the last
year, visit www.alpa.org/strategicplan.
BOD Delegate Committee 1
ALPA Structure & Member Resources examines the Association’s
structure and member resources to maximize the benefits and
services provided to ALPA members, strengthen pilot alliances,
share information across pilot groups, enhance professional
development, and promote the airline piloting profession. Efforts
are focused on
ÆÆ supporting
ALPA fee-fordeparture (FFD) carriers.
Developed a comprehensive career resources
management program to
assist members in securing positions with large-jet
operators and coordinated
meetings for FFD groups
to collaborate on issues of
mutual interest.
ÆÆ leading the creation of a
global pilot strategic plan;
planning for the 2016
Global Pilots’ Symposium
is under way.
ÆÆ strengthening global pilot
alliances. Participated in
the 2015 Associations of
Star Alliance Pilots and
SkyTeam Pilots Association
meetings in October.
ÆÆ conducting strategic planning at many master executives councils (MECs)—
Air Wisconsin, Atlantic
Southeast, Compass, Delta,
Envoy Air, ExpressJet,
FedEx Express, Hawaiian,
Jazz Aviation, JetBlue,
Mesa, Spirit, Sun Country,
United, and Virgin America.
ÆÆ promoting the piloting
profession through ALPA’s
Education Committee.
Conducted more than 100
presentations at grade
schools, colleges, and community and industry events
in the U.S. and Canada;
outreach efforts continue
to expand.
ÆÆ equipping newly elected
ALPA leaders with the tools
they need to represent
their pilots effectively.
Held two Leadership Training Conferences in 2015,
focusing on the Association’s vast resources,
expertise, and industry/
government relationships.
ÆÆ enhancing member services and resources. Conducted a Membership seminar
in May 2015, focusing on
membership processes,
benefits of membership,
mentor programs, and the
evolving career path for
pilots. Also developed an
electronic membership
card.
ÆÆ implementing a new web
infrastructure; the new
public website went live
in May 2015, and the
new members-only site is
expected to launch in the
near future.
Collective Bargaining, Grievances,
Retirement & Insurance, and Strategic
Preparedness & Strike Committee
(SPSC) explores contract negotiations
and enforcement approaches and
benefits models with a goal of
improving contract standards in the
four cornerstone areas of pay, benefits,
work rules, and job security, as well as
coordinating activities to build unity,
coordinate across pilot groups, and
realize Association and MEC goals.
Efforts are focused on
Air Safety Organization & Flight Time/
Duty Time (FT/DT) addresses safety,
security, pilot assistance, and FT/DT
initiatives with the goal of minimizing
operational risks and further enhancing
airline safety. Efforts are focused on
ÆÆ continuing
to assess opportunities for
contract improvements based on the
current economic environment and to
identify new ways to generate value
consistent with pilot expectations.
ÆÆ exchanging information and sharing
experiences. Held two bargaining
roundtables in 2015 for ALPA and
non-ALPA large-jet carriers. Held a
national R&I Seminar in 2015.
ÆÆ providing ALPA FFD members with opportunities to meet airline representatives. Conducted a series of airline
hiring open houses.
ÆÆ eliminating the excise tax on employer-provided health-care benefits.
Endorsed anti-excise-tax legislation
and secured more than 250 cosponsors for the House bill and more than
28 cosponsors for the Senate bill.
ÆÆ SPSC training to address a broad
range of bargaining issues and options as well as strategy and tactics.
Conducted trainings with Air Transat,
Air Wisconsin, ExpressJet, FedEx
Express, Hawaiian, JetBlue, and Sun
Country MECs.
ÆÆ SPSC workshop held in October 2015
for MEC SPSC leaders and volunteers
to collaborate on strategies and coordinate activities.
ÆÆ continuing to advocate for one level of
safety and security for all airline operations.
ÆÆ including more airports in the Known
Crewmember (KCM®) program; five
additional airports have been added,
and site surveys were scheduled for the
latter part of 2015.
ÆÆ proactively informing and responding to
numerous congressional and news media inquiries about aircraft tracking with
an overview of the Association’s position
on the issue as well as educational information about NextGen, aircraft operations, technology, and other issues.
ÆÆ work with the U.S. House Committee on
Homeland Security that has now been
completed to improve an airport security
bill and include a waiver process for
employees to address security identification display area credentialing and
background check issues.
ÆÆ work with other stakeholders that has
now been completed to successfully
oppose a legislative proposal to transfer
exit lane security to airports.
ÆÆ implementing risk-based security and
other measures. Participated in the
Aviation Security Advisory Committee’s
cargo security subcommittee meeting in
July 2015 to further discussions.
ÆÆ evaluating medical certification intervals. Per extensive research, met with
the FAA and Transport Canada (TC) to advocate that the medical periodicity may
be lengthened safely. TC adopted the
International Civil Aviation Organization
(ICAO) intervals effective Jan. 1, 2015;
the FAA has not yet done so.
ÆÆ raising, discussing, and identifying specific issues and areas that need improvement in the air cargo industry. ALPA
hosted an Air Cargo Symposium in November, which included subject-matter
experts from industry and government.
Topics covered mitigating risks for all-
cargo operations; the safe transportation
of hazardous materials; night transportation operations, human performance,
and fatigue; and aviation infrastructure
needs for all-cargo operations.
ÆÆ advancing aviation safety, including
safeguarding the air transport of lithium
battery shipments. ALPA pilot volunteers
and professional staff continue to brief
key members of the U.S. Senate and
House on the Association’s longtime call
for Congress to give the Department of
Transportation the authority to fully regulate all shipments of lithium batteries,
including those carried aboard all-cargo
aircraft. A full set of regulations for the
safe shipment of lithium batteries by air
will help the U.S. lead the global industry
by establishing standards that can be
adopted worldwide.
ÆÆ advocating for regulations regarding
the safe carriage of lithium batteries
on a global scale. The ICAO Dangerous
Goods Panel, on which ALPA participates
through the International Federation of
Air Line Pilots’ Associations (IFALPA), provided direction to an independent standards writing group for the development
of lithium battery packaging standards
Public Relations & Advocacy
evaluates the Association’s
communication efforts to educate
and inform internal and external
audiences for the purposes of
building unity and support. Efforts
are focused on
ÆÆ integrating
a communications component into all pilot group strategic plans to achieve MEC goals
and objectives; plans completed or
will be completed in 2015 include
Alaska, Atlantic Southeast, CommutAir, Compass, Delta, Envoy Air,
ExpressJet, JetBlue, Mesa, PSA,
Spirit, and Virgin America.
ÆÆ providing ongoing communications support of MEC bargaining
and other efforts.
at its meeting in October 2015.
ÆÆ ensuring the safe integration of un-
manned aircraft systems (UAS) into the
U.S. national airspace system. Provided
technical guidance on legislative proposals and testimony on safe integration
of UAS to U.S. House and Senate offices
and subcommittees. Also met with
organizations representing commercial
and hobby UAS users and joined the
FAA’s “Know Before You Fly” education
campaign.
ÆÆ publicly debunking the “pilot shortage” myth. Hosted a successful one-day
conference on “Airline Pilot Shortage:
Myths, Facts & Solutions” in June 2015.
Launched a Call to Action through which
more than 1,100 pilots have contacted
Congress and continue to meet with
members of the U.S. House and Senate.
ÆÆ actively participating in Air Carrier Training (ACT) Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) meetings on the development
of alternate pathways to the restricted
ATP. Evaluated proposals by the Regional
Airline Association and the ACT ARC.
ÆÆ engaging with industry and government
security agencies to improve air- and
ground-based threat education and miti-
ÆÆ developing
interactive campaigns—
e.g., a new responsive public ALPA
website, a new comprehensive FFD
program and website to promote career protection and progression, and
an aggressive push against the massive subsidies received by the three
largest Middle East carriers—that
use cutting-edge technology and
other methods to engage members
and the public.
ÆÆ expanding ALPA’s news media presence through ongoing news media
briefings, cultivation meetings, and
opinion piece placements; rolled
out two white papers—State of Our
Skies: Canada (May 2015) and Keep
America Flying: A Flight Plan for Safe
and Fair Skies (July 2015)—and garnered widespread attention through
gation strategies. Submitted a request to
the FAA Research, Engineering & Development Committee’s Subcommittee for
Aircraft Safety to fund research aimed at
onboard technology capable of eliminating or strongly mitigating the effects of
a laser strike; the recommendation was
approved in October 2015 and now
goes to the FAA for action. Responded
to congressional inquiries regarding the
spike in the number of laser incidents.
Produced three videos to improve security situational awareness among ALPA
members. Hosted a one-day conference in April 2015 on transportation
security and the collaborative use of
intelligence.
ÆÆ mandating the installation of secondary
cockpit barriers. Provided congressional
testimony on this issue and met with
members of the U.S. House and Senate
to encourage cosponsoring legislation;
to date, the House bill has 52 cosponsors, and the Senate bill has 8.
ÆÆ enhancing the Federal Flight Deck Officer (FFDO) program. Per ALPA’s strong
advocacy, both houses of Congress
agreed in mid-2015 to a funding level of
$22.4 million.
news media relations efforts.
membership participation and engagement; rebranded
Air Line Pilot, FastRead, ALPA Daily,
and other outreach products and
developing a mechanism to collect
information/feedback from members on existing communications
tools.
ÆÆ building awareness among ALPA
members via pilot committees
regarding how best to use department expertise to amplify messages and highlight the Association’s
value—e.g., increasing Call to Action participation, education pieces
on ALPA structure, and promotional
materials that inform pilots how to
easily access ALPA resources and
services.
ÆÆ increasing
Financial Policy & Review and Major
Contingency Fund (MCF) assesses
ALPA financial policies and strategic
assets to maximize the allocation of
resources in support of Association-wide
and individual pilot group strategic
priorities. Efforts are focused on
ÆÆ an
analysis completed by the Special
Dues and Services Committee (SDSC)
on the existing dues rate and services
and the effect a dues rate reduction
would have on the Association’s budget, MEC incomes, and ALPA services;
it reported that a 1.90 percent dues
rate is sufficient for providing the current level of services and that ALPA
could reduce its dues rate to 1.85
percent and maintain that level. The
Executive Council, Executive Board,
and Board of Directors will consider
the SDSC recommendations.
ÆÆ a review completed by the MCF
Review Committee on the purposes
of the MCF and the projected needs
for the fund in the current environment. The committee recommended
a target funding level for the MCF of
$100 million to be reached within 10
years. The Executive Council, Executive Board, and Board of Directors will
consider the MCF Review Committee’s
recommendations.
ÆÆ developing new financial and membership systems and associated analytics to provide increased support
to members and streamline services;
these new systems are expected to
be implemented during 2016.
ÆÆ ALPA’s staffing plan, which continues
to evolve to address the needs of our
members. Planning developmental-,
skill-, and technology-based training
throughout the Association in 2016 to
improve member service and value.
ÆÆ leveraging industry contacts and
relationships throughout the organization to recruit and hire the best
and brightest for current and future
vacancies.
Legal & Mergers considers legal and
merger-related issues that ALPA faces,
including defending the Association
against lawsuits, protecting the airline
piloting profession against threats, and
implementing ALPA’s risk-management
programs to safeguard the union and its
members. Efforts are focused on
Government Affairs & Regulatory studies
legislative and regulatory efforts to
promote pilot, airline, and labor-friendly
policies in the U.S. and Canada. Efforts are
focused on
decision-makers on the
harm a flag-of-convenience business
model could wreak on our airline
industry.
ÆÆ monitoring and countering external threats such as those posed
by Middle East airlines. Joined the
Partnership for Open & Fair Skies as
a founding member to combat the
threat of subsidized competition from
state-supported Middle East carriers.
ÆÆ vigorously defending the Association
in litigation.
ÆÆ providing advice, training, and materials on a full range of legal issues,
including duty-of-fair-representation
requirements, to ALPA leaders oneon-one and at the Leadership Training
Conferences, Pilot to Pilot meetings,
and Negotiations and Grievance Training Seminars held in 2015.
ÆÆ supporting and enhancing ALPA’s
risk-management program and associated risk-avoidance and -mitigation
efforts; completed renewal process
for continued insurance coverage
through Kitty Hawk and continuing
to review possible program improvements.
reauthorization legislation to advance
aviation safety and the piloting profession; developed fact sheets on specific
issues (e.g., secondary cockpit barriers,
UAS, pilot pay shortage, and lithium
batteries) and briefed every member of
the House and Senate Aviation Subcommittee on ALPA’s priorities.
ÆÆ identifying and supporting congressional champions and collaborating
with other stakeholders to advance
ALPA’s priority agenda items; provided
congressional testimony on a variety of
issues—FAA modernization, the FFDO
program, and UAS.
ÆÆ continuing work to remedy the cargo carveout of FAR Part 117 FT/DT regulations;
included science-based fatigue rule for
cargo in the FAA reauthorization agenda.
ÆÆ advocating for the establishment of national-level aviation policies to promote
financially stable U.S. and Canadian
airline industries through continued
dialogue and coordinated action with
policy-makers and industry groups.
ÆÆ urging the White House to take immediate action on U.S. Open Skies agreements with the governments of the
United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar;
268 members of the U.S. House, 22
senators, and dozens of governors, may-
ÆÆ reaffirming the value of being part
ÆÆ educating
Illustration: iStock.com
ÆÆ promoting ALPA’s agenda in 2015 FAA
Internal & External Organizing analyzes
organizing opportunities to strengthen
and grow the union and promote ALPA
as the unified voice of the airline piloting
profession. Efforts are focused on
ÆÆ broadly touting the accomplishments
and initiatives of the union through a
robust communications program.
of ALPA and actively promoting the
principle that “membership has its
privileges.”
ÆÆ maintaining relationships with airline pilots who have expressed or may express
interest in having ALPA become their
collective bargaining representative.
ÆÆ facilitating the representation process
and assisting the Virgin America pilots
ors, and other elected officials weighed
in with the administration in support of
ALPA’s position on open and fair skies.
ÆÆ “A Deal Is a Deal” ad campaign, which
launched in September 2015 to compel
government decision-makers to immediately open consultations with Qatar
and the UAE.
ÆÆ engaging with members of Congress to
ensure that their vocal advocacy against
Norwegian Air International continues to
reach the Department of Transportation.
ÆÆ direct advocacy by pilot volunteers
and ALPA’s Government Affairs Department to stop the rollback of first officer
qualification rules and FT/DT regulations
through legislative means (e.g., meetings on Capitol Hill and in congressional
districts).
ÆÆ sharing information with international
labor organizations and stakeholder
groups on economic, safety, security, airline, and worker interests and priorities.
ÆÆ advocating for changes to Canada’s
Temporary Foreign Worker Program and
reciprocal agreements to ensure continued restrictions on foreign labor market
entrants while opening opportunities
for domestic pilots; placed news items
in the Toronto Star and other news
media outlets.
ÆÆ educating and engaging ALPA members
on government affairs issues; developed Coffee = Action program, visited
MECs and local councils, recruited
and trained District Advocates, and
increased the use of social media to
connect pilot advocacy with members
of Congress.
in starting and managing operations
after a successful organizing campaign
whereby they elected to bring ALPA on
as their collective bargaining representative in June 2015.
ÆÆ reviewing the organizing metrics used
by the Organizing Task Force; an assessment of its practices and procedures
was reported to the May 2015 Executive Board.
Air Line Pilot Feature Article » SUN COUNTRY
Earning Their Place
In the Sun
By ALPA Staff
O
Photos: Rusty Ayers
n October 28, Capt. Brian Roseen,
the Sun Country pilots’ Master
Executive Council (MEC) chairman, waited in ALPA’s Minneapolis,
Minn., office for a call to learn how the
airline’s 250 pilots had voted on a new
contract that was the result of five long
years of negotiations.
“We were cautiously optimistic, but
we never took it for granted that the
tentative agreement would pass,” noted
Roseen. Finally, his cell phone rang:
ALPA’s Election and Ballot Certification
Board had verified the ballot count. Sun
Country pilots had voted to overwhelmingly support the new contract.
“Some 94 percent of eligible pilots
participated in the ratification vote, and 87
percent of the pilots who voted supported
the contract,” Roseen said. “Those numbers
told us that we had succeeded in coming
very close to what the pilots needed.”
Roseen felt relieved that the dark cloud
that had hung over the pilot group for
nearly half a decade would finally be
behind them. “Everyone was looking
ahead toward the future for the first time
in years,” he recollected.
LONG HISTORY OF STORM CLOUDS
“Rising fuel costs and a credit crunch
can drive an airline into bankruptcy—if
your owner’s legal troubles don’t bring
you down first,” reported The Wall Street
Journal in an Oct. 8, 2008, story about
the state of Sun Country Airlines. The
company’s owner had just been arrested.
Days later, Sun Country filed for bankruptcy protection.
Fast-forward to 2015. While the pilots
had begun negotiations in April 2010, when
Sun Country was still in bankruptcy, the
company finally emerged from Chapter 11
in February 2011; and by June of that year,
 F/O Mark Hein (Sun Country), front, holds a
“100% Ready” sign as he and other pilots conduct
informational picketing at Minneapolis–St. Paul
International Airport’s Terminal 2.
 Capt. Brian Nelson (Sun Country) asks a question
during a meeting in which pilots voted unanimously
to authorize a legal strike if allowed by the federal
government.
Sun Country had new owners. By 2014, the
airline had more than doubled in size.
It was clear that 2015 brought fresh
opportunity for the pilots.
UNITY IS #1
“The company thought that it was just
the MEC and the Negotiating Committee
that were pushing to get a new contract,”
said Roseen. “Over time, the company
learned that it was the entire pilot group
that wanted a fair contract.”
Capt. Tim Canoll, ALPA’s president,
spoke with Roseen almost weekly during
the 2015 negotiations. “He called me once
in the middle of a holiday weekend with
an idea that he thought might help,”
Roseen recalled. “Capt. Canoll was always
engaged and available for us.”
Canoll had emphasized that the number one factor was pilot unity. “We had
it, but the company didn’t believe that we
had it,” said Roseen.
In February, management had made a
proposal that would provide only minimal
increases in pay even though the pilots
had not received a pay rate increase in a
decade, and those rates had been carried
over from a prior contract. “Our current
pay is 30 to 40 percent lower than the
midpoint for our peers. We’re seeking a
contract that gradually gets us closer to
the industry average. The company offer
keeps us from realizing that goal,” said
Roseen of the offer. On February 26, the
pilots voted 100 percent to authorize their
leaders to declare a legal strike if allowed
by the federal government.
In April, the company made its “last,
best, and final” offer. Management
proposed a contract that continued to
fall further behind industry compensation, benefit, and work rule patterns. The
St. Paul Pioneer Press reported in a May 8
story that Roseen had characterized the
offer as “wholly inadequate.” Sun Country
warned in the same story that “our management team has begun the process of
downsizing the airline for what will need
to be its ultimate shutdown.”
On April 24, the pilots held an informational picket at Minneapolis–St. Paul
International Airport. More than 80 Sun
Country pilots marched. They were joined
by ALPA pilots from Alaska, Compass,
Delta, Endeavor Air, and United. “With tre
Air Line Pilot Feature Article » SUN COUNTRY
 Sun Country pilots attend a road show to discuss the details of their tentative agreement.
mendous backing from ALPA’s Strategic
Preparedness and Strike Committee and
other ALPA pilots, we took a strong step
forward that day to increase pressure on
the company,” Roseen said.
At the same time, the MEC and the
Negotiating Committee led the pilots
in putting together a new plan to get a
contract. While a range of contract issues
concerned the pilots, pilot leaders, with
the help of ALPA’s Representation Department, agreed on the negotiating priorities
and the need to seek more resources from
the National Mediation Board (NMB).
In late May, ALPA presented its counterproposal to the company at the NMB
offices in Washington, D.C., but the parties left town without an agreement.
By June, ALPA had asked the NMB to
schedule more mediation sessions and
made arrangements to further review the
company’s financials. The same month,
Roseen appeared at a meeting of the Minneapolis–St. Paul Metropolitan Airport
Commission (MAC) Board, reporting that
he had recently learned that Sun Country
had plans to secure additional airplanes
later in the year and that the airline was
planning to hire pilots. The MAC was
reviewing gate expansion plans in light
of the airline’s recent statements about a
possible shutdown.
In July, Canoll had sent a letter to the
NMB requesting a final mediation session
as soon as possible and, if that mediation
session was unsuccessful, to release the
parties to a cooling-off period and the
right to take self-help. “We’re returning to
mediation with a willingness to do our part
to avoid a work stoppage; but we’ve been
negotiating for five years, and the time has
come for this to end,” said Roseen.
EVERY PILOT BETTER
OFF
“As prior MEC negotiators had reminded
us, we knew that
every pilot would find
something in the new
contract that he or
she did like as well as
something that they
didn’t like, but the fact
that we would all be
better off under a new contract is what
kept us unified,” Roseen recalled.
Pilot leaders worked hard and made
tough decisions about negotiating priorities to hone in on the key contract issues.
“The pilot group leaders made the tough
decisions to let go of some issues they
wanted to resolve but that weren’t practical to pursue in light of pilot leaders’
desire to achieve immediate significant
economic improvements,” said Bruce
York, ALPA’s senior advisor and chief negotiator. “Instead, they worked to move
ahead in a few key areas that would reap
significant positive gains for the pilots.”
Betty Ginsburg, ALPA’s director of
Representation, recalled, “Given that
the pilots had been in mediated negotiations since 2012, it was critical to make
the most of the NMB as a resource to
conclude collective bargaining.”
“NOTHING WE DO IS BELOW AVERAGE—
WHY SHOULD OUR PAY BE?”
The MEC also intensified its communications to its members. Using the slogan
“Nothing we do is below average, why
should our pay be?” the pilot leaders
urged members to rely on facts and not
rumors to form their opinions.
Working with ALPA Communications
Department staff, the pilot leaders sent
regular “Quick Notes” e-newsletters and
kept current the pilots’ website. “Every
five to seven days, we communicated
with our pilots. We wanted to make absolutely sure that the pilots had accurate
information,” explained Roseen.
The MEC also rapidly responded to any
misinformation. Working with ALPA’s
Economic & Financial Analysis team, the
negotiators were able to demonstrate
that Sun Country pilots were the lowestpaid B-737 scheduled service pilots in
the country and that they were moving
further away from their peers. “ALPA’s
economic analysts were able to take
complex financial scenarios and cost projections and communicate them in a way
that everyone could easily understand,”
said Roseen. “This became a powerful
tool at the bargaining table.”
“THIS CONTRACT IS YOUR ACHIEVEMENT”
On September 23, the MEC reached a
tentative agreement on a new five-year
contract. “Our local union leadership has
reviewed the agreement presented by our
negotiators and unanimously approved
sending it out to our membership for
ratification,” Roseen said.
The pilots held two family awareness
events in October. More than 100 pilots
and spouses attended. The MEC and Negotiating Committee members also staffed
the Minneapolis–St. Paul crew room for
“Coffee and Conversation” events. ALPA’s
Communications Department filmed the
first information session and posted it on
the pilots’ website, along with a contract
summary, detailed pay rate tables, and the
full language of each tentatively agreed-to
section of the new contract.
On October 28, after a two-week voting
period, the MEC announced that the pilots
had ratified their tentative agreement. The
five-year collective bargaining agreement,
which took effect on November 1, included
day-one pay raises of between 20 and 30
percent depending on seniority and future
pay increases totaling 21.5 percent over the
remaining five-year term.
The pilot leaders made clear that
the new contract was due to the pilots’
solidarity and support for the MEC and
the Negotiating Committee as well as
ALPA’s world-class support and resources.
“When we needed you, you were there
100 percent—at the pilot meetings, on the
informational picket lines, and especially
during the strike ballot that helped provide your leadership with the bargaining
leverage we needed,” acknowledged the
MEC leaders. “Through it all, you always
kept your poise and professionalism. This
contract is your achievement.”
Air Line Pilot Feature Article » FIRST FLIGHT
My 1
Flight
Share Your First Flight
Have a story you want to share with us? E-mail
your “My First Flight” submission (please keep
it to 500 words or less) and throwback photo to
Communications@alpa.org. Visit www.alpa.org/
MyFirstFlight for more information.
st
By Kevin Cuddihy
Contributing Writer
T
o help celebrate the
112th anniversary of
the Wright Brothers’
first flight on Dec. 17, 1903,
we asked ALPA members
to share with Air Line Pilot
memories of their first
flying experiences to help
inspire the next generation
of airline pilots to take to
the skies.
The following are just
two of the submissions we
received. We’ll share more
in the coming months in
the magazine and on
www.alpa.org.
& Dad
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The Best Job
In the World
By Capt. Thomas Bishop (Mesa)
Growing up in the 1960s, riding on an airline
flight was a dream few kids got to experience. My dad traveled on Eastern Airlines
every chance he could when on business
trips, and I grew up idolizing Capt. Eddie
Rickenbacker, one of America’s greatest heroes. I didn’t get to fly until 1978, when I was
in college heading to New York’s LaGuardia
Airport on a nighttime flight. When the flight
attendant checked on me and learned it was
my first flight, I told her my only regret was
that it was so dark I wouldn’t be able to see
much outside.
I later heard the flight attendant returning from the cockpit and looked up. She was
headed straight to me. She said, “Mr. Bishop,
please follow me. Capt. Smith would like to
have a word with you on the flight deck.” I
wondered, “What did I do?”
She opened the flight deck door, and the
captain introduced himself and the first officer. He then said, “Son, pull that jumpseat
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out and sit with us for a few minutes.” I was
speechless for about 30 seconds. We talked
about aircraft instruments, navigation,
procedures, and aircraft specifics. I had the
opportunity to watch these two confident
professionals do their jobs and at the same
time share a few moments with an interested young person. I felt so blessed. Before
I left their office, I thanked them both and
proclaimed, “You guys have the best job in
the world.” The captain looked at the first
officer, then at me, and smiled, saying, “Sshh,
don’t tell anybody.”
Returning to my seat, I pondered quite a
bit on his last statement, wondering what
he meant. Did he mean, “Don’t tell anyone I
let you up here” or was it, “Don’t let everybody know this is indeed the best job in the
world”?
Those few moments I spent with them
planted a “seed” within me. And, yes, being
an airline pilot means you are blessed to
have the best job in the world. Thank you
captain. You and the legacy of Eastern Airlines will never be forgotten.
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Advancing the Profession…Pilots & Staff
Thinking Outside the Box
Enhancing Air Cargo Safety, Security
T
he all-cargo airline environment
poses its own unique set of operational challenges for airline pilots;
that’s why on November 5 ALPA—in its
continuing effort to address these concerns—gathered subject-matter experts,
including representatives from industry
and government, to discuss solutions at
the Association’s Air Cargo Symposium
titled “Outside the Box: Better Ideas for
Air Cargo Safety and Security.”
“We brought everyone together today
to collectively identify areas of all-cargo
operations where safety and security improvements can and should be made,” said
Capt. Tim Canoll, ALPA’s president, during
his opening remarks. He noted the disparity that exists between passenger and allcargo rules and regulations and the need
for change, adding, “We all want safe and
secure cargo operations that help power
the North American economy through the
reliable delivery of goods worldwide.”
Symposium attendees heard keynote
presentations from top government
transportation officials including FAA Administrator Michael Huerta, who talked
about the importance of punitive-free, selfdisclosing programs that allow employees
to report irregularities and problems they
experience. In applying this frontline
feedback to improve the transport of air
freight, the administrator stressed, “Our
actions need to be grounded in data.”
NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart
spoke to the group at length about the
investigation into the National Airlines
B-747-400 accident in Bagram, Afghanistan, in April 2013. Flight 102 crashed
shortly after takeoff because five large
military vehicles, weighing approximately 80 tons, weren’t properly secured.
“This was a wake-up call,” said Hart,
one that compelled both regulators and
operators to revisit training and loading
procedures for special cargo or freight
the FAA describes as “frangible, crushable, incompressible, sharp, or outsized.”
Capt. Joe DePete, ALPA’s first vice
president and national safety coordinator—and an air cargo pilot for more than
two decades—observed, “All-cargo flying
is some of the most challenging aviating
that a pilot can do. We carry all kinds
of loads halfway around the world…
with hazardous materials on board, and
normally in the dead of night when most
others are asleep.”
PANEL DISCUSSIONS
“Safe Transportation of Hazardous Materials” focused largely on the potential
dangers of transporting large shipments
of lithium batteries. Moderator Capt. Scott
Schwartz (FedEx Express), director of
ALPA’s Dangerous Goods Program, noted
that most lithium battery shipments don’t
include the same level of protections as
other hazardous materials, making them
difficult to track. “As a result, it’s nearly
impossible for airlines to perform a proper
risk assessment, and pilots rarely know
how many lithium batteries are on board
their aircraft,” he said.
Another panel explored the effects of
nighttime operations on pilot fatigue.
Capt. Don Wykoff (Delta), ALPA’s Flight
Time/Duty Time Committee chairman,
who has spearheaded the Association’s
To view more photos from the Air
Cargo Symposium, scan the QR
code.
one level of safety campaign urging that
cargo pilots be included in the FAA’s Part
117 science-based flight-time limitations
and rest rules, moderated the panel and
emphasized the need for a single rule for
all airline pilots based on “a nonprescriptive, data-driven approach.” Addressing
disruptions to pilot circadian rhythms,
Capt. Rich Hughey (FedEx Express), who
chairs the ALPA President’s Committee
for Cargo, added that “unfortunately,
pilot groups in all-cargo operations are
sometimes compelled to negotiate additional safety measures to provide what
regulations should but don’t.”
A third panel looked at infrastructure
challenges for all-cargo operations, including potentially limited aircraft rescue and
firefighting capabilities, differing perimeter
security, nighttime tower closings at smaller facilities, and nighttime construction.
A fourth panel broadly examined safety
and security risk policies associated with
airfreight operations and how they differ
from those of passenger ops. FAA Air
Safety Inspector Stephen Moates talked
about the changing nature of cargo operations, including varying loading demands,
new destinations and their differing
operations environments, and the unique
requirements of special cargo. “In risk
management, there’s a job for everybody….
It takes a group effort,” he said.
DePete offered these concluding
thoughts: “It’s time for a new cost-benefit
methodology to be used by the government for all-cargo operations, and that
must begin with a recognition that an
accident is an accident is an accident, no
matter how many souls are onboard…and
regardless of the payload.”
“This is ALPA’s 12th one-day technical
conference since we began holding them
in 2011,” said Capt. Mark Harrison (FedEx
Express), communications coordinator
for ALPA’s Air Safety Organization, who
moderated the symposium held in Washington, D.C.
—John Perkinson, Staff Writer
Photo: Chris Weaver
ALPA@work
View from the
Symposium
Health
Watch
Fitness Apps =
No Gym Necessary
By ALPA Staff
B
eing an airline pilot can make
working out regularly a challenge.
Fortunately, in our smartphone-/
tablet-dependent world, there are many
fitness apps that make it easy to do cardio and circuit training, Pilates, yoga, and
stretching regardless of the time of day
or your location. We’re highlighting one
example here.
Sworkit Lite, available for free at
the Apple App Store, Google Play, and
Amazon, offers a variety
of exercise options. It’s like
having your own personal
trainer available whenever
you need one. Most importantly, you don’t need
exercise equipment—just a
smartphone or tablet.
After selecting the workout and its duration, you
choose specific areas to focus on, such as upper body, lower body,
or core. You can also pick flexibility
routines, including full-body stretching,
back strength, and sun salutations for
yoga fans.
Researchers at the University of
Florida rated 30 popular free Apple fitness apps based on guidelines set by the
American College of Sports Medicine. In
assessing the apps, researchers focused
on three categories: aerobic exercise,
strength/resistance training, and flexibility. Each app had its advantages, but
only Sworkit Lite met more than half of
the criteria outlined in the guidelines.
(For more details on the study, check
out the July/September 2015 issue of the
Journal for Medical Internet Research.)
Piqued your interest? Download
Sworkit Lite and give it a try.
Like to get your heart pumping?
Select Cardio from the main menu. Four
workout options vary by degrees of
intensity—Light Warm-Up Cardio, FullIntensity Cardio, Plyometrics Jump Cardio, and Boot Camp. The app will ask for
a duration period. Choose between 5 and
60 minutes. Individual exercises last for
30 seconds. Your workout trainer alerts
you to the coming exercise change and
demonstrates the different moves on
your screen. If the routine is new to you,
you can pause the clock and watch the
trainer demonstrate it until you’re ready
to follow along. At the end
of your routine, you’ll see
how many calories you’ve
burned.
The app’s default setting
includes no transition periods between exercises, but,
if you prefer, you can opt
for a five-second transition.
After five exercises, the
app gives you a 30-second
break. And don’t miss the music note
icon in the upper right corner, which
gives you a wide choice of workout music options available through Spotify.
Into yoga or Pilates? Select the yoga
option and choose either Yoga Sun
Salutations, Yoga Full Sequence, Yoga
for Runners, or Pilates. The American
Osteopathic Association website notes
that yoga’s relaxation techniques can
ease pain associated with arthritis,
headaches, lower back issues, and carpal
tunnel syndrome.
The program notes that it “uses a scientifically proven technique of combining interval training with randomized
exercises to maximize the effectiveness
of every session…. The randomized
aspect helps your body work out harder
by preventing it from getting used to
a specific routine, helping you stay
motivated.”
The app does have limitations. If you
prefer to work out based on sets or a
specific numbers of reps versus timed
periods, you might want to try another
app. You’ll also need Internet access to
view the videos.
As with most apps, for a fee there’s
an upgrade to this program that offers
greater levels of customization.
Recommended by Army Times and
BreakingMuscle.com, Sworkit could be
your answer to building a workout routine that fits your on-the-go lifestyle. If
you’re interested in a fitness app to use
on layovers or at home, check out the
University of Florida study. Better yet,
download several free fitness apps and
decide which one works best for you.
Most importantly, develop a workout
routine you can use when you travel
to promote and maintain a healthy
lifestyle. As the app description says, “No
gym, no excuse.”
Other Options?
Active ALPA members
in good standing:
Do you have another fitness app that you’d
recommend? The first three members to
recommend a different app and include a brief
personal story about why it’s your choice of app
will receive a $10 iTunes or Google Play gift
card. Please respond to Magazine@alpa.org
and include your ALPA member number with
your submission.
Our
Stories
Below: Members of the Hawaiian Airlines Jets and the Virgin
America hockey teams take the
ice at the Las Vegas Ice Center.
www.alpa.org/ourstories
Drop the
Puck
Hawaiian, Virgin America
Pilots Face Off
By John Perkinson, Staff Writer
W
hat do airline pilots and ice
hockey have in common? More
than you think. With a handful
of former National Hockey League (NHL)
players as ALPA members, it’s no surprise
that teams of airline pilots gathered to face
off in the first-ever Inter-ALPA Hockey
Classic.
In back-to-back games this fall, the
pilots who play for the Hawaiian Airlines
Jets edged out the Virgin America team to
win the tournament held at the Las Vegas
Ice Center.
“The first game was entertaining,” said
Capt. Rod Buskas (Hawaiian), the Jets
co-captain who is both a Hawaiian pilot
negotiator and former NHL defenseman.
“We were behind, down 4–0 after two
periods. We must have been on Hawaiian
time,” joked Buskas, who once held the
Pittsburgh Penguins’ record for career-high
penalty minutes. (Which means he spent a
lot of time in the penalty box.) However, the
Jets powered back to tie the game and won
5–4 with a dramatic sudden-death overtime
goal.
In the second game, it was the Hawaiian
team that got off to an early lead. Although
the Virgin America team started to make
a comeback, “we just couldn’t quite close
the deal,” said F/O Mark Nahan (Virgin
America), an A320 pilot and the grandson
of noted former Los Angeles sportscaster
Stu Nahan. Again, the Hawaiian pilots
were victorious, winning 5–4.
“It was nice to get out there and pass
the puck around with some guys who’ve
played pretty decent hockey in their lives
and just have a good time,” said Capt. Larry
Payne (Hawaiian), his pilot group’s Master
Executive Council (MEC) vice chairman
and a former member of the Arizona State
hockey team. “The sport is a great teambuilding exercise, and there’s tremendous
camaraderie among the players.”
The Hawaiian pilots established a team
about 15 years ago, initially playing tournaments like the Microsoft Hockey Challenge in Seattle, Wash., which benefits
the Ronald McDonald House charities.
Over time the group disbanded—until just
recently, when Payne and Buskas started
talking with some of their fellow members
about how they missed playing the sport.
In short order, the Hawaiian Jets were
back on the ice.
Meanwhile, F/O Jeff Sharples (Virgin
America), a former Detroit Red Wings
defenseman, told his buddy Buskas that
Virgin America had organized a team.
Primarily made up of pilots—but also
consisting of other employees, family
members, and friends—the Virgin America
hockey team has participated in events
like the U.S. Pond Hockey Championship,
played on Lake Nokomis just north of
Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport.
Sharples put Buskas in touch with Nahan,
and preparations for the first Inter-ALPA
Hockey Classic were set in motion.
Nahan said he and F/O Mark Esposito
(Virgin America) had discussed organizing
a Virgin America team for some time. Management liked the idea and provided funds
to help them get started. After playing the
Jets in Las Vegas, the Virgin America team
has since traveled to the Staples Center in
Los Angeles, Calif, where, in late November,
they played a local L.A. team following an
L.A. Kings/Chicago Blackhawks game.
Looking back on the Inter-ALPA Hockey
Classic, Esposito—the son of Chicago
Blackhawks legend Tony Esposito—said,
“Hockey can be a pretty nasty sport at
times, but this was a gentlemen’s game
with lots of competition. We played hard
and had a great time.”
“It was really good hockey, and this is
exactly what we want to do with other
teams,” said Nahan. Both teams are interested in finding new opponents and have
talked about organizing a U.S. or North
American pilot hockey tournament. Rumor
has it that Delta, Jazz Aviation, and other
ALPA pilot groups have a few hockey players who might just be up to the challenge.
A few weeks after the Inter-ALPA
Hockey Classic, during ALPA’s fall Executive Board meeting—Virgin America
pilots’ first board meeting—Payne announced in the the spirit of good-natured
rivalry that the Hawaiian pilots had
already welcomed the Virgin America pilots “by kicking their butts in two games”
earlier that month.
No doubt Nahan, Esposito, and the rest
of the Virgin America team are itching for
a rematch, tentatively scheduled to take
place in Honolulu in September 2016.
AIR LINE PILOT2015INDEX
AUTHORS
Air), Envoy Air, Jan.–Feb.
Air Line Pilot Staff, 5th Annual Photography
Issue, Dec.
Seitz, Kimberly, and Capt. Ken Reinert (Air
Wisconsin), Air Wisconsin, Jan.–Feb.
ALPA Economic & Financial Analysis Department Staff, North American Airline Industry
Continues on Profitable Path, but Threats
Persist, Oct.
Steenblik, Jan W., Piedmont, Jan.–Feb.; Airline
Pilot Shortage—Myths, Facts & Solutions,
Aug.; More Questions Than Answers, Aug.;
ALPA Urges EPA to Leave Airline Emissions
Standards to ICAO, Sept.
ALPA Staff, The Pilots of ALPA 2015, Jan.–Feb.;
FAA Announces Changes to Sleep Apnea
Policy, Mar.; Four Global Aviation Challenges,
Apr.; ALPA-PAC: Growing into the Future, May;
Be a Pilot Partisan, May; District Advocacy:
Earning Results Nationwide, May; FAA Reauthorization and ALPA’s Safety and Policy
Agenda, May; From Atop Parliament Hill, May;
Legislative & Regulatory Update Hot Topics
for 2015, May; Q&A with Charles Schwab’s
Walt Bettinger, May; ALPA’s Flight Plan to
Keep America Flying, Aug.; ‘We Are Involved,
We Are Prepared & We Are Dedicated’ at
ALPA’s 61st Air Safety Forum; Aug.; A Package
Deal: Rules to Safely Fly Lithium Battery
Shipments, Sept.; When You Fly…We Can’t,
Oct.; Stopping Laser Attacks on Aircraft: No
Shot in the Dark, Nov.; Earning Their Place in
the Sun, Dec.
ALPA Strategic Planning Committee, Progress
Report; ALPA’s Strategic Plan, Dec.
Ayers, Rusty, CommutAir, Jan.–Feb.; Compass,
Jan.–Feb.; ExpressJet, Jan.–Feb.; First Air,
Jan.–Feb.; Hawaiian, Jan.–Feb.; Island Air,
Jan.–Feb.; Sun Country, Jan.–Feb.
Baj, Doug, JetBlue, Jan.–Feb.
Bland, Courtney, FedEx Express, Jan.–Feb.
Burket, Tawnya, Air Transport International,
Jan.–Feb.; Calm Air, Jan.–Feb.; CanJet, Jan.–
Feb.; North American, Jan.–Feb.; Wasaya,
Jan.–Feb.
Cuddihy, Kevin, Becoming Leaders of Leaders,
Mar.; ‘Reach Back and Help Out Someone
Else,’ Sept.; ALPA Pilots Take Part in First-Ever
Global Girls in Aviation Day, Nov.; My First
Flight, Dec.
Cuddihy, Kevin, and F/O Jolanda Witvliet
(United), Connecting, Engaging & Inspiring
at the International Women in Aviation
Conference, Apr.
Eissler, Capt. Fred (FedEx Express), FFDO Program: The Last Line of Defense, June–July
Hughey, Capt. Richard (FedEx Express), Keeping
America Flying Safely: Cargo Issues, Sept.
Kelly, C. David, United, Jan.–Feb.; United
Pilots’ New-Hire Mentor Program Takes Off,
June–July
Lindvig, F/O Rachel (Envoy Air), and Kimberly
Seitz, Envoy Air, Jan.–Feb.
Lofquist, Jen, Atlantic Southeast, Jan.–Feb.;
Bearskin, Jan.–Feb.; Jazz Aviation, Jan.–Feb.;
Mesa, Jan.–Feb.; Spirit, Jan.–Feb.
Martin, Molly, And Virgin America Makes 31,
June–July
Perkinson, John, Air Transat, Jan.–Feb.; PSA,
Jan.–Feb.; ALPA Pilots Seek Out Capitol Hill
Policymakers, June–July; Executive Board
Convenes, Implements Policy Changes,
June–July; Awards Banquet Celebrates Pilot
Excellence, Aug.; ALPA Pilots, Staff Honor
9/11 Victims, Continue Pledge to Never
Forget, Oct.; Eighth Grader Takes on Open
Skies, Nov.
Regus, Kelly, Delta, Jan.–Feb.
Reinert, Capt. Ken (Air Wisconsin), and Kimberly Seitz, Air Wisconsin, Jan.–Feb.
Rowe, Capt. Spencer (Envoy Air), and Capt. Paul
Ryder (ExpressJet), Landing Your Dream Job,
Mar.; Prepare, Practice, Succeed, Apr.; CRM for
Your Future, May
Ryder, Capt. Paul (ExpressJet), and Capt. Spencer Rowe (Envoy Air), Landing Your Dream
Job, Mar.; Prepare, Practice, Succeed, Apr.;
CRM for Your Future, May
Seitz, Kimberly, Canadian North, Jan.–Feb.;
Endeavor Air, Jan.–Feb.; Kelowna Flightcraft,
Jan.–Feb.; Trans States, Jan.–Feb.
Seitz, Kimberly, and F/O Rachel Lindvig (Envoy
Sutton, Jenn, Alaska, Jan.–Feb.
Witvliet, F/O Jolanda (United), and Kevin
Cuddihy, Connecting, Engaging & Inspiring
at the International Women in Aviation
Conference, Apr.
Wright, Jerry, ALPA Helps to Improve the
Known Crewmember Program, Mar.
SUBJECTS
Accident Investigation Training: More Questions Than Answers, Aug.
Air Cargo: Keeping America Flying Safely: Cargo
Issues, Sept.
Airline Industry: ALPA Helps to Improve the
Known Crewmember Program, Mar.; Four
Global Aviation Challenges, Apr.; FFDO
Program: The Last Line of Defense, June–July;
Airline Pilot Shortage—Myths, Facts &
Solutions, Aug.; ALPA’s Flight Plan to Keep
America Flying, Aug.; ALPA Urges EPA to Leave
Airline Emissions Standards to ICAO, Sept.;
North American Airline Industry Continues
on Profitable Path, but Threats Persist, Oct.;
Eighth Grader Takes on Open Skies, Nov.
Airline Safety: FFDO Program: The Last Line of
Defense, June–July; More Questions Than Answers, Aug.; A Package Deal: Rules to Safely
Fly Lithium Battery Shipments, Sept.; Keeping
America Flying Safely: Cargo Issues, Sept.;
When You Fly…We Can’t, Oct.; Stopping Laser
Attacks on Aircraft: No Shot in the Dark, Nov.
ALPA: The Pilots of ALPA 2015, Jan.–Feb.; Becoming Leaders of Leaders, Mar.; ALPA Helps
to Improve the Known Crewmember Program,
Mar.; FAA Reauthorization and ALPA’s Safety
and Policy Agenda, May; From Atop Parliament Hill, May; Legislative & Regulatory
Update Hot Topics for 2015, May; ALPA Pilots
Seek Out Capitol Hill Policymakers, June–
July; Executive Board Convenes, Implements
Policy Changes, June–July; ALPA’s Flight Plan
to Keep America Flying, Aug.; More Questions
Than Answers, Aug.; ALPA Urges EPA to Leave
‘Reach Back and Help Out Someone Else,’
Sept.; ALPA Pilots, Staff Honor 9/11 Victims,
Continue Pledge to Never Forget, Oct.; When
You Fly…We Can’t, Oct.; ALPA Pilots Take Part
in First-Ever Global Girls in Aviation Day, Nov.
ALPA Air Safety Forum: ‘We Are Involved, We
Are Prepared & We Are Dedicated’ at ALPA’s
61st Air Safety Forum, Aug.; Awards Banquet
Celebrates Pilot Excellence, Aug.
ALPA-PAC: ALPA-PAC: Growing into the Future,
May; ALPA-PAC Roll of Distinction, May
Career Progression: Landing Your Dream Job,
Mar.; Prepare, Practice, Succeed, Apr.; CRM for
Your Future, May
FFDO: FFDO Program: The Last Line of Defense,
June–July
Financial Planning: Q&A with Charles Schwab’s
Walt Bettinger, May
Government: FAA Reauthorization and ALPA’s
Safety and Policy Agenda, May; District
Advocacy: Earning Results Nationwide, May;
From Atop Parliament Hill, May; Legislative &
Regulatory Update Hot Topics for 2015, May;
ALPA Pilots Seek Out Capitol Hill Policymakers, June–July; ALPA Urges EPA to Leave
When You Fly…We Can’t, Oct.
Mentoring: Connecting, Engaging & Inspiring at
the International Women in Aviation Conference, Apr.; United Pilots’ New-Hire Mentor
Program Takes Off, June–July; ‘Reach Back
and Help Out Someone Else,’ Sept.
9/11: ALPA Pilots, Staff Honor 9/11 Victims,
Continue Pledge to Never Forget, Oct.
Organizing: And Virgin America Makes 31,
June–July
Pilot Group Profiles: (All in Jan.–Feb.) Air
Transat, Air Transport International, Air Wisconsin, Alaska, Atlantic Southeast, Bearskin,
Calm Air, Canadian North, CanJet, CommutAir,
Compass, Delta, Endeavor Air, Envoy Air,
ExpressJet, FedEx Express, First Air, Hawaiian,
Island Air, Jazz Aviation, JetBlue, Kelowna
Flightcraft, Mesa, North American, Piedmont,
PSA, Spirit, Sun Country, Trans States, United,
Wasaya
Pilot-Partisan Agenda: (All in May) ALPA-PAC:
Growing into the Future; ALPA-PAC Roll
of Distinction; Be a Pilot Partisan; District
Advocacy: Earning Results Nationwide; FAA
Reauthorization and ALPA’s Safety and Policy
Agenda; From Atop Parliament Hill, Legislative & Regulatory Update Hot Topics for 2015
Pilots: The Pilots of ALPA 2015, Jan.–Feb.;
Becoming Leaders of Leaders, Mar.; FAA Announces Changes to Sleep Apnea Policy, Mar.;
Landing Your Dream Job, Mar.; Connecting,
Engaging & Inspiring at the International
Women in Aviation Conference, Apr.; Prepare,
Practice, Succeed, Apr.; ALPA-PAC Roll of
Distinction, May; Be a Pilot Partisan, May;
CRM for Your Future, May; District Advocacy:
Earning Results Nationwide, May; And Virgin
America Makes 31, June–July; Airline Pilot
Shortage—Myths, Facts & Solutions, Aug.;
More Questions Than Answers, Aug.; ‘Reach
Back and Help Out Someone Else,’ Sept.; ALPA
Pilots, Staff Honor 9/11 Victims, Continue
Pledge to Never Forget, Oct.; ALPA Pilots Take
Part in First-Ever Global Girls in Aviation Day,
Nov.; Earning Their Place in the Sun, Dec.; My
First Flight, Dec.
Pilot Photos: 5th Annual Photography Issue, Dec.
Pilot Shortage: Airline Pilot Shortage—Myths,
Facts & Solutions, Aug.
Sleep Apnea: FAA Announces Changes to Sleep
Apnea Policy, Mar.
Strategic Planning: Progress Report: ALPA’s
Strategic Plan, Dec.
Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS): When You
Fly…We Can’t, Oct.
ALPA Toolbox
Mar.: Pilot Travel Expenses and Per Diem
Update for 2014
June–July: Give Me 5 for Supporting P4P
Commentary, Guest
May: A Bipartisan Approach to Aviation
(DeFazio)
Dec.: Building Influence (Barshefsky)
Lasers: Stopping Laser Attacks on Aircraft: No
Shot in the Dark, Nov.
Lithium Batteries: A Package Deal: Rules to Safely
Fly Lithium Battery Shipments, Sept.; Keeping
America Flying Safely: Cargo Issues, Sept.
Global View
May: Sounding an International Call to Action
Health Watch
Jan.–Feb.: 7 Simple Steps to Staying Fit
Mar.: Pilots, GERD, and Ulcers—and FAA
Requirements for Flying the Line
Apr.: Meds, FAA Policy, and You
May: Arrhythmias: Causes, Treatment, and FAA
Policy
June–July: Arrhythmias: Meds and FAA Certification (Rhythm Control)
Aug.: Is It Safe to Eat That Peri Peri Chicken?
Drink the Local Tap Water?
Sept.: Superfoods to Help Pilots Stay Healthy
Oct.: Career-Saving Advice When You Need It
Nov.: Choosing the Right Blood Pressure Meds
Dec.: Fitness Apps = No Gym Necessary
Opinions
Oct.: A Zero-Carbon Aviation Future (Hallahan)
Our Stories
Jan.–Feb.: ALPA Pilot Runs to Support Wounded
Warrior
Apr.: ExpressJet Pilot Helps Bring Mars Visit a
Little Closer to Reality
May: Jazz Pilot Crosses the Atlantic to Help
Boys in Need
Aug.: Warbirds Over Washington: Arsenal of
Democracy Flyover
Sept.: Wake for Warriors: Pilot Gives Back to
Wounded Vets
Oct.: Retired Spirit Pilot Receives Hall of Fame
Honors
Nov.: Endeavor Air Pilot Makes His Mark in
the NFL
Dec.: Drop the Puck
Our Union
Jan.–Feb.: ALPA Is We Ourselves
Mar.: Five Minutes Earlier
Apr.: Compete with Honor
May: Pilots in Command
June–July: Mighty ALPA
Aug.: The Habit of Excellence
Sept.: By the People
Oct.: ALPA’s Individual Enterprise
Nov.: Democracy Is the Core of Discovery
Dec.: The Rest of the Team
Pilot Musings
Taking Off
ALPA@Work
Jan.–Feb.: Positioning the U.S. Airline Industry
for Success; ALPA’s Professional Standards
Committee: ‘Far More Than You May Think’
Apr.: ALPA Secretary-Treasurers Conference
Provides Tools, Resources
May: Making a Difference—Behind the Scenes;
ALPA’s Security & Jumpseat Councils Meet
June–July: Training Pilots to Successfully Negotiate and Enforce Agreements; Intel Agency
Reps, Pilots Talk Security at ALPA Conference;
HIMS Seminar Addresses Complex Issues;
Membership Seminar Preps Reps to Make
ALPA’s Best First Impression
Sept.: Getting to Know Your ASO; Air Safety Forum Recap—Committee Work and Discussion
Oct.: The Inner Workings of ALPA’s Air Safety
Organization
Nov.: Roundtable Gives Pilots Chance to Share
Negotiating Experience, Knowledge
Dec.: Thinking Outside the Box
Known Crewmember: ALPA Helps to Improve
the Known Crewmember Program, Mar.
Jan.–Feb.: ALPA to Congress: Ensure Long-Term,
Sustained NextGen Funding
Nov.: ALPA Tells Congress UAS Need Greater
Oversight
Jan.–Feb.: History, Pride, and a Little Pin
DEPARTMENTS
Health: FAA Announces Changes to Sleep
Apnea Policy, Mar.
Midsize Carriers (Prada)
From the Hill
Commentary, Pilot
Apr.: Give a Girl a Dream (Witvliet)
Oct.: Doing Our Part to Help ‘Green’ Airlines
Stay Safe and in the Black (Hurst)
Dec.: How the Middle East 3 Affect Low-Cost,
Jan.–Feb.: The Certainty of Change
Mar.: Committed to the Cause
Apr.: ALPA’s Return on Investment
May: ALPA’s Pilot-Partisan Staff
June–July: Taking Control
Aug.: Supporting Career Progression
Sept.: Staying Ahead of the Curve
Oct.: Pilots Unite
Nov.: Ready for Upload
Dec.: ALPA’s Overall Mission
The Landing
Jan.–Feb.: It’s a Family Affair
Mar.: Caption This!
Apr.: Open and Fair Skies
May: Double Take
June–July: The Mighty Hercules
Aug.: Spin the Wheel (Pilot Pay Shortage)
Sept.: National Aviation Day
Oct.: ‘A Manmade Miracle’
Nov.: Busiest Airports in the United States and
Canada
Dec.: Year in Review: 2015
Weighing In
Mar.: Elected to Serve You (Couette)
Apr.: Reinvesting in Our Future (Helling)
June–July: Working to Safeguard Our Skies
(DePete)
Sept.: Making Changes to Better Represent You
(Couette)
Nov.: Preparing for ALPA’s Tomorrow (Helling)
Dec.: ASO Fuels ALPA’s Success (DePete)
April 8—The Transportation Security
Administration’s Aviation Security
Advisory Committee issued a final report containing 28 recommendations
aimed at improving security following
public revelations about an East Coast
gun-smuggling operation involving
airliners and airline employees.
January 1—ALPA national
officers took office.
January 13—The Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
implemented a long-standing ALPA
recommendation to eliminate the requirement for crewmembers to be in
uniform to use a Known Crewmember
(KCM®) access point. ALPA facilitated
a meeting with Transport Canada,
Airlines for America, and the TSA to
initiate a beta test to include Jazz
Aviation pilots in KCM, an effort that is
ongoing. Five additional airports were
added to KCM in 2015, now up to 60,
and more are on the way.
JANUARY
FEBRUARY
February 24—Jazz Aviation
Flight 7795 landed short
of the runway in Sault Ste.
Marie, Mich. ALPA is an
observer to the Transportation Safety Board of
Canada investigation.
March 2—JetBlue
pilots sent a notice to
management to open
negotiations, the first
labor negotiations in
the history of JetBlue.
MARCH
January 26—A U.S. intelligence
agency employee mistakenly
crashed a drone on the south
lawn of the White House at
about 3 a.m., raising yet again
the importance of the safe
integration of unmanned aircraft
systems (UAS) into the U.S.
national airspace system.
January 23—The FAA released new
guidance to aeromedical examiners
regarding how to evaluate pilots for possible obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). ALPA
positively influenced the new guidance,
eliminating a requirement that body mass
index be the single “trigger” for a required
sleep study and emphasizing the need to
assess all airmen for OSA as a regular part
of airman physical exams.
April 14—The FAA issued longawaited guidance on the installation
of secondary cockpit barriers on
airliners. The new advisory circular
drew attention to RTCA’s document
Aircraft Secondary Barriers and Alternative Flight Deck Security Procedures as
guidance to achieve effective flight
deck protection.
APRIL
MAY
JUNE
March 24—Germanwings Flight
9525 crashed; investigators
concluded that the copilot
intentionally flew the airplane
into the French Alps, killing all
150 people aboard.
March 5—Delta Flight
1086, a Boeing MD-88,
exited the runway at
LaGuardia Airport. ALPA
is a party to the NTSB
investigation and participated on all of the NTSB
investigative groups.
20
May 29—U.S. Customs and Border
Protection (CBP) said it plans to
expand its preclearance program
to additional airports in Europe, the
Caribbean, and Japan. CBP facilities
are designed to allow U.S.-bound
passengers to clear customs before
they enter the United States.
March 5—American, Delta, and United
released a white paper that details the
$42 billion in government subsidies
and benefits provided to Qatar Airways,
Etihad Airways, and Emirates Airline in
direct violation of U.S. Open Skies policy.
Year in
* This is not an all-inclusive list of 2015 aviation events.
October 27—
For 2015, ALPA
awarded the J.J.
O’Donnell Trophy for Excellence
in Political Action to
United pilots.
September 8—British Airways Flight
2276, a B-777-200ER, experienced a
No. 1 engine uncontained failure during
takeoff at McCarran International Airport.
ALPA provided CIRP and additional
assistance to the crew and to the British
Airline Pilots Association, both on the
scene and during the NTSB investigation.
June 24—Transport Canada
launched a national campaign on
laser safety to address the rising
number of lasers pointed at aircraft
in Canada after meeting with ALPA,
the FAA, and the FBI to share strategies to reduce laser attacks. Join
the conversation and learn more by
using #NotABrightIdea.
015
Review *
June 4—Virgin America pilots voted overwhelmingly in favor of joining ALPA; 95.7
percent of the 612 eligible pilots voted.
September—ALPA went green
as the union launched its emembership card. Download
yours at www.alpa.org/apps.
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SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER
December 17—112th
anniversary of the
Wright Brothers’ first
flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C.
November 4—Newly
elected Canadian Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau
named an equal number
of male and female cabinet members “because
it’s 2015.” He named Marc
Garneau, the first Canadian to go to outer space,
transport minister; and
MaryAnn Mihychuk the
employment, workforce
development, and labour
minister.
NOVEMBER
November 18—The
FAA’s Pilot Fitness
Aviation Rulemaking
Committee (ARC) completed and submitted
its report and recommendations to the FAA.
The ARC was tasked
with making recommendations that may
be used to improve the
emotional and mental
health training and
certification of U.S.
pilots. Capt. Joe DePete,
ALPA’s first vice president, and Keith Hagy,
an Engineering & Air
Safety Department staff
member, participated
on the ARC.
October 30—The International Civil Aviation Organization’s
(ICAO) Dangerous Goods Panel failed to adopt a ban on international lithium-ion battery shipments on passenger airliners until
adequate safety regulations are in place. A number of U.S.-based
airlines have already voluntarily removed lithium-ion battery
shipments from their airplanes. Shipments of metal
lithium batteries have been prohibited in the U.S.
for more than 10 years. A similar ban was
recently adopted in Canada. ICAO is working to develop packaging requirements for
lithium batteries shipped as cargo.
October 31—ISIS terrorists purportedly bombed Russian Metrojet Flight
9268, bringing it down over the Sinai
Peninsula in Egypt, killing all 224
people aboard.
July 23—ALPA honored its own during the
Association’s Air Safety Forum Banquet:
Capt. Darrin Dorn (Alaska), F/O Helena
Reidemar (Delta), F/O Tom Thornton
(Delta), Capt. James Judkins (Delta), and
F/O Michael Oates (Delta). Check out
safetyforum.alpa.org to learn why.
DECEMBER
November 13—ISIS
terrorists attacked
Paris, killing at least
120 people.
November 21—The FAA’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Registration Task Force Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) released
its report and recommendations, another important step in achieving ALPA’s four-point action plan for the safe integration of UAS
in U.S. national airspace. Capt. Charles Hogeman (United), ALPA’s
Aviation Safety chairman, and Randy Kenagy, an Engineering & Air
Safety Department staff member, were participants on the ARC.
ALPA Resources & Contact Numbers
National Officers
Executive Vice Presidents
For complete biographical
information on ALPA’s national
officers, visit www.
alpa.org or scan the
QR code.
For more information on which pilot groups executive
vice presidents represent, visit www.alpa.org/evp.
 Capt. Andrew
Massey
(Delta)
 Capt. Larry
Beck (United)
 Capt. Russell
Sklenka
(FedEx Express)
 Capt. Rick
Dominguez
Executive
Administrator
Capt. Tim Canoll
President
Capt. Joe DePete
First Vice
President
 Capt. Mike
McMackin
(JetBlue)
CommutAir,
Endeavor Air,
Hawaiian,
JetBlue,
Piedmont,
Spirit
 Capt. Chris
Suhs
(Air Wisconsin)
Air Transport
International,
Air Wisconsin,
Atlantic Southeast, ExpressJet,
PSA, Trans
States
HAVE YOU MOVED?
Please call Membership Administration at
1-888-359-2572, then press 3; e-mail your
new address to Membership@alpa.org; or
clip out this form—along with the mailing
label on the back cover—and send it to
ALPA Membership Administration
PO Box 1169, Herndon, VA 20172-1169
Name
 Capt. Dan
Adamus (Jazz)
Air Transat,
Bearskin, Calm
Air, Canadian
North, First Air,
Jazz Aviation,
Wasaya
The solution to this month’s ALPA sudoku can
be found on page 14.
Too easy, too difficult? Tell us what you think.
E-mail Magazine@alpa.org.
Photos: Chris Weaver
5 2
Capt. Randy
Helling
Vice President–
Finance/
Treasurer
 Capt. Paul
Stuart, Jr.
(Alaska)
Alaska, Compass, Envoy Air,
Island Air, Mesa,
Sun Country,
Virgin America
ALPA Sudoku (© paulspages.co.uk)
Complete the sudoku puzzle so that each
column, each row, and each of the nine
3×3 sub-grids that compose the grid contain all the digits from 1 to 9.
Capt. William
Couette
Vice President–
Administration/
Secretary
Want to know more
about ALPA’s EVPs?
Scan the QR code.
1
3
8
9
4 5
6
8
6
4
7
2
1
3
7
1
Member #
Airline
New address
Apt.
City
State
Zip
5
6
9 3
Air Line PilOt
Editor in Chief Sharon B. Vereb
Associate Managing & Production Editor
Susan Fager
ALPA Information Numbers
Staff Writer John Perkinson
The following ALPA resources may be reached by e-mail or by dialing, toll-free, 1-888-359-2572
(1-888-FLY-ALPA). Once connected, press the # key on your phone and dial the last four digits of the
number listed below. However, the ALPA main number, ASPEN, the Membership and Insurance toll-free
number, and Membership Administration numbers need to be dialed directly.
Accident Investigation
(EAS@alpa.org)
703-689-4312
Discipline and Discharge
(Rep@alpa.org)
703-689-4226
Accounting and Finance
(Finance@alpa.org)
703-689-4144
Economic and Financial Analysis
(EFA@alpa.org)
703-689-4289
Air Line Pilot
(Magazine@alpa.org)
703-481-4460
Election Dates LEC/MEC
703-689-4212
ALPA Aeromedical Office 303-341-4435
ALPA Main Number
703-689-2270
ALPA Memorabilia
(SMDR@alpa.org)
703-481-4458
ALPA-PAC 202-797-4033
ASPEN 703-689-4220
Balloting (Balloting@alpa.org)
703-689-4173
Cashiering (Cashiering@alpa.org)
703-689-4385
Communications
(Communications@alpa.org)
703-481-4440
Computer Help Line
(HelpDesk@alpa.org)
703-689-4357
Council Services (CSC@alpa.org)
703-689-4311
Engineering and Air Safety
(EAS@alpa.org)
703-689-4200
FAA Enforcement or Medical
Certificate Action (Rep@alpa.org)
703-689-4226
Government Affairs
(GovernmentAffairs@alpa.org)
202-797-4033
Membership Administration
(Membership@alpa.org)
1-888-359-2572
(1-888-FLY-ALPA), option 3
Magazine/Graphic Designer Susan Boulter
ePublishing Editor Jesica Ferry
Web Coordinators Chris Weaver, Suzi Fenton
Supervisor, Creative Services Kelly M. Barrett
Supervisor, Content Strategy Molly Martin
Supervisor, Multimedia Productions Eric Davis
IT Operations and Services
(ITOS@alpa.org)
703-689-4245
Contributing Writer Kevin Cuddihy
Director of Communications Cathy St. Denis
Organizing
(OrganizingInfo@alpa.org)
703-689-4179
Publishing and Design Services
(Publishing@alpa.org)
703-481-4441
Purchasing (Purchasing@alpa.org)
703-689-4319
Representation (Rep@alpa.org)
703-689-4375
Human Resources
(HumanResources@alpa.org)
703-689-4262
Real Estate
(RealEstateDept@alpa.org)
703-689-4105
Information Technology
and Services
(ITServices@alpa.org)
703-689-4237
Retirement and Insurance
(RI@alpa.org)
703-689-4114
Legal (Legal@alpa.org)
202-797-4096
703-689-4326
Strategic Member Development
and Resources
(SMDR@alpa.org)
703-481-4467
Member Insurance
(Insurance@alpa.org)
1-800-746-2572
System Board of Adjustment
(Rep@alpa.org)
703-689-4226
General Manager Lori Garver
Air Line Pilot is not responsible for unsolicited
manuscripts, photographs, or other materials.
Unsolicited materials will be returned only if submitted with a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
Opinions expressed by authors do not necessarily
represent official ALPA position or policy.
Subscriptions: Subscription rate for pilot members,
$27.50, included in ALPA membership dues; for students, $41; for U.S. nonmembers, $55; for foreign,
$71.50. Residents of the state of Washington must
add 8.8 percent sales tax. To subscribe go to
www.alpa.org/subscriptions or call 703-481-4460.
Advertising: Any advertising appearing in Air Line
Pilot cannot be construed as being an endorsement
by the Air Line Pilots Association, International or its
members. The publisher reserves the right to reject,
discontinue, or edit any advertisement. For advertising information, contact Advertising@alpa.org.
Address Changes: To report address changes, contact Membership@alpa.org or call 1-888-359-2572
(1-888-FLY-ALPA) and chose menu option 3, 3.
Air Line Pilot is printed in the United States and
published for professional airline pilots in the
United States and Canada who are members of the
Air Line Pilots Association, International.
Membership Administration
To obtain membership account information or to update your records or your postal or e-mail address via
the Internet, go to the My ALPA area of Crewroom.alpa.org; or dial the toll-free number 1-888-359-2572
(1-888-FLY-ALPA) and choose menu option 3,3. Listed below are the telephone numbers of MEC offices.
Air Transat–TSC MEC
1-888-337-2033
Delta–DAL MEC
404-763-4925
Mesa–MAG MEC
602-306-1116
Air Transport International–
ATI MEC
505-263-8838
Endeavor Air–PCL MEC
855-PCL-ALPA
*North American–NAA MEC
513-257-7662
Envoy Air–ENY MEC
817-685-7474
Piedmont–PDT MEC
339-987-1277
Alaska–ALA MEC 206-241-3138
ExpressJet–XJT MEC
281-987-3636
PSA–PSA MEC
703-481-4444
Atlantic Southeast–ASA MEC
404-209-8566
FedEx Express–FDX MEC
901-752-8749
Spirit–SPA MEC
1-855-SPA-ALPA
Bearskin–BRS MEC
807-628-5683
First Air–FAB MEC
1-877-459-3272
Sun Country–SCA MEC
952-853-2393
Calm Air–CMA MEC
204-471-1000
Hawaiian–HAL MEC
808-836-2572
Trans States–TSA MEC
412-780-9036
Canadian North–CNP MEC
780-718-6012
Island Air–AIS MEC
808-838-0188
United–UAL MEC
847-292-1700
*CanJet–CJA MEC
1-800-959-1751
Jazz Aviation–JAZ MEC
1-800-561-9576
Virgin America–VRD MEC
435-962-0951
CommutAir–CMT MEC
440-985-8579
JetBlue–JBU MEC
603-303-2195
Wasaya–WSG MEC
807-624-7270
*Compass–CPZ MEC
952-853-2373
*Kelowna Flightcraft–KFC MEC
905-630-4341
Air Wisconsin–ARW MEC
1-800-ALPA-ARW
Senior Advocacy Writer Linda Shotwell
ALPA Headquarters: 1625 Massachusetts Ave.,
NW, Washington, DC 20036
Postmaster: Send address changes to Air Line Pilot,
PO Box 1169, Herndon, VA 20172-1169.
Other Organizations
ALPA Aeromedical Office 303-341-4435
ALPA Federal Credit Union 1-800-747-2349
ALPA Accident/Incident Hotline
If you are involved in an accident, incident, or alleged
violation of a federal aviation regulation, contact your
local or central air safety chairman, regional safety
chairman, or the worldwide ALPA accident/incident
hotline at 202-797-4180 (collect calls are accepted)
for an immediate response 24 hours per day. As a
backup number, call 703-892-4180.
To report a safety problem or airspace system
deficiency, call 1-800-424-2470 or e-mail
EAS@alpa.org.
2015 EBCB Schedule
The Association’s Election and Ballot Certification Board’s schedule for counting ballots is
December 10.
Any ALPA member in good standing may be
present as an observer during any meeting.
Contact the Association’s Membership and Council
Services Department for scheduling.
*Pilot group in custodianship
Take care of your
ground crew.
ALPA MEMBER INSURANCE
Offering unique products designed by pilots for pilots
to our members for more than 50 years.
Accidental Death &
Dismemberment Insurance
Disability Insurance
• Loss of License
• Loss of License-Plus
• Loss of License Lump Sum
Make sure ALPA insurance is part of your flight plan.
Call us today at 800-746-2572 or visit us on the web
at memberinsurance.alpa.org.
Additional Plans
(Subject to open enrollment
or qualifying life event)
• Dental Insurance
• Critical Illness
• Accident
AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION, INT’L
A member service of Air Line Pilot.
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Life Insurance
• 10- and 20-Year Level Term
• Group Term

Air Line PilOt

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