ALPA has asked the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to reject proposals by Republic Airways and SkyWest to lower the number of hours required to operate as a pilot.
Reviewing the above, Republic Airways requested to be exempted from the requirement of 14 CFR 61.159, which requires 1,500 hours of flight time to obtain an ATPL rating. This request was joined by Skywest in a separate filing using similar arguments.
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The Air Line Pilots Association, the world’s largest aviation safety NGO, noted that «undermining the landmark First Officer Qualification Standards Act would put passengers and crews at risk.» In light of this, the group filed an opposition against the companies’ applications.
Captain Joe DePete, president of ALPA, took aim at the airlines saying that «Republic and SkyWest, despite receiving significant government funding, still don’t know how to run an airline without jeopardizing safety». The executive went on to note that «U.S. taxpayers subsidized these airlines and now they are trying to undermine the most effective safety measure of modern times, which has resulted in a 99.8% reduction in passenger airline fatalities. The petitions would be laughable if they were not so serious, and should be summarily dismissed,» he added.
DePete is referring to the First Officer Qualification Act, which was passed by Congress in 2010 following four high-profile accidents, including Colgan Air Flight 3407. These events, in which dozens of passengers died, captured the nation’s attention. The changes introduced by the law made the U.S. market one of the safest in the world: in the last ten years, there has been only one fatality in commercial operations in the U.S., which occurred during Southwest Flight 1380.
«Republic’s proposition that its academy is similar to pilot training provided by the military is totally wrong. Not only is it a solution in search of a problem but will have deathly consequences by allowing less experienced first officers to sit in the cockpit,» DePete closed.
