pilots

Tag Archives for pilots.

Raise The Pilot Retirement Age!

by Gary Leff on July 25, 2022

Jul 25 2022

The U.S. government imposes numerous rules to keep commercial airline pilots scarce. This is done under the guise of safety, but the rules don’t actually have anything to do with safety.

The problem is that more available pilots means less leverage for pilots unions, and since union contracts determine who flies which aircraft, which routes, and which schedules – and therefore how much a pilot gets paid – largely based on seniority, a higher retirement age while good for older union members is bad for younger ones.

Two American Airlines Pilots Almost Crashed, Totaled A Plane, Still Get To Fly

by Gary Leff on July 25, 2022

Jul 25 2022

The captain said he couldn’t control the plane during takeoff. He veered left and hit a runway sign. The first officer grabbed controls and the plane climbed out. They lost a $100 million aircraft, but all of the passengers were safe. And both pilots still fly for American Airlines.

American Airlines Pilots Union Tries To Scare Passengers Away From Flying

by Gary Leff on July 9, 2022

Jul 09 2022

American and its pilots union have been in negotiations over a new contract. The latest company offer is for a raise of roughly 17% by the end of 2024. The union’s new President says they knew their members are going to get paid – the real negotiations are over work rules and quality of life issues.

Their negotiating strategy seems to be to trash the airline in the media, with a mix of charges that have a grain of truth combined with nonsense.

For Airline Pilots, The Struggle Is Real

by Gary Leff on July 3, 2022

Jul 03 2022

Listen to pilots talk publicly, posturing in contract negotiations, it’s a grueling career that no one should want. Privately, though, many realize that being entrusted with $100 million machines and flying them around for a living is a pretty great gig. Many also build side businesses in their time off (insurance is a common one).

Picketing by pilots is a bad look, though. Pilots do not realize how they come across. They simply aren’t successful marketing themselves as the exploited worker class.

American Airlines Pilots Union To Members: “Enjoy Your Time Off” You Don’t Have To Fly

by Gary Leff on July 2, 2022

Jul 02 2022

It’s a mess, but a mess that can be fixed with money. As a result if American somehow doesn’t fix it, it’s a huge failure of management. So it’s also a test of the new management team whose orders are normally to not spend a dollar more than they need to.

American Airlines May Have Further Sabotaged Their Operation With One Scheduling Mistake

by Gary Leff on July 2, 2022

Jul 02 2022

Summer travel is peak travel. American Airlines knew it had a problem without very much margin in pilots this month so they turned off the ability for some of their pilots to trade trips even when they had someone ready to take their place.

At least that’s what they meant to do. They updated the trip trade system making it possible for pilots to drop all of their trips.

Did The APA Pilots Union Slander American Airlines On National TV?

by Gary Leff on June 22, 2022

Jun 22 2022

American Airlines pilots union spokesman Dennjs Tajer went on CNBC Squawk Box and made a number of claims against the airline. Some of them are true – like American not keeping pilots current during the pandemic despite receiving government subsidies in order to do so – and then there’s this claim: that the federal government is advising employees not to book travel on American.

Senators Lean On American And Delta For Flights To Indiana. Here’s What They Don’t Understand.

by Gary Leff on May 28, 2022

May 28 2022

Congress, at the behest of pilots unions and under the guise of safety after the Colgan Air accident, created significant barriers to becoming a pilot that were completely unrelated to the cause of that incident. Congress can fix this if they want air service to the smallest cities, precisely what gets cut as pilots are allocated to the most valuable trips, they should fix this.

Delta Pilots Make A Bad Faith Case For Boarding Pay

by Gary Leff on May 5, 2022

May 05 2022

Pilots are one of the few unionized work groups at Delta. They’re complaining that Delta gave non-union flight attendants a raise by adding pay for boarding time (in addition to their pre-pandemic raise, post-pandemic raise, and special profit-sharing).

However Delta cannot unilaterally change the pay of their pilots. Their pilots literally agreed to – voted on – a contract that paid more for time flying the plane and didn’t calculate pay including boarding time. Not only haven’t pilots made boarding pay a priority, they’ve chosen the current arrangement because it benefits senior union members at the expense of junior ones.

With A Shortage Of Pilots, Should We Revisit The 1500 Hour Rule That’s Choking Off Supply?

by Gary Leff on April 29, 2022

Apr 29 2022

We want pilots who know what they’re doing, but the 1500 hour rule itself doesn’t weed out those who don’t. European regulators and Canadian regulators don’t see a need for 1500 flight hours on top of licensing and type-rating. We want to focus on measures that actually improve safety, and so pilot flight hour requirements can probably be greatly improved. Instead we’ve got rules that primarily make it tough to become a pilot, increasing the bargaining strength of those already in the profession.