American Airways to make use of nonunion pilots for some check flights, drawing criticism

American Airways this month will cease utilizing unionized pilots to carry out sure check flights, a transfer the aviators’ union argues would cut back the independence of those opinions.

Beginning Thursday, American will solely assign nonunion firm pilots to check plane which have been in long-term storage or which have not too long ago undergone heavy upkeep, earlier than prospects fly on them. Beforehand, a bunch of specifically skilled union pilots carried out the duties together with nonunion firm pilots.

That union check pilot group had shrunk to about six individuals from 24 in 2016 as some left the union to develop into firm technical pilots, retired or went again to flying passengers, American mentioned.

“For the previous 5 years, American has been transitioning our check flying to those expert pilots and fleet specialists to raised handle the unpredictable nature of check flights, that are dictated by the completion of upkeep and don’t observe a set schedule,” American Airways spokeswoman Sarah Jantz mentioned.

However the Allied Pilots Affiliation, which represents American’s roughly 15,000 pilots, opposes the measure.

“The inspiration of AA’s sturdy security tradition has been a dedication to making sure that impartial, protected, and unintimidated pilots are conducting these important security test flights versus administration pilots who could have a battle of curiosity,” Eric Ferguson, an American Airways captain and APA’s president, mentioned in a Feb. 19 message to members. “Any transfer to crack that basis will probably be met with the strongest opposition by APA.”

The union didn’t say that there have been any imminent or particular security dangers or that procedures have been out of line with federal requirements.

American mentioned that its firm pilots have been already performing most of those flights and that they acquired the identical specialised coaching as union check pilots.

“In April, and in keeping with the collective bargaining settlement, we’ll centralize this flying, absolutely transitioning it to our Fleet Captains and Technical Pilots,” American spokeswoman Jantz mentioned. “Importantly, our expectations and requirements is not going to change with this transition. We’ll proceed finishing maintenance-related flight checks above and past FAA necessities with the identical coaching utilizing the identical procedures and checklists.”

American mentioned it’s discussing with the union methods they might contain their pilots in such a flying. Line pilots represented by the union will proceed to fly planes after they arrive out of short-term storage earlier than passengers fly on them.

Jantz mentioned the variety of check flights or the bar to fulfill them is not going to change.

“Any plane taken out of storage have to be maintained in keeping with the producer’s upkeep guide and any relevant FAA rules and Airworthiness Directives,” FAA spokesman Ian Gregor mentioned in an announcement.

American on Monday mentioned that throughout the second quarter it plans to make use of many of the planes it had parked within the pandemic to fulfill rising journey demand.

The Allied Pilots Affiliation has beforehand raised issues concerning the flight check program, together with to the Transportation Division’s watchdog in 2017, alleging that there was a “tradition of suppressing security complaints.”

In July 2018, the Transportation Division’s inspector normal’s workplace mentioned it carried out an audit that discovered an Federal Aviation Administration inspector “lacked objectivity” in his evaluate of American’s security program.

The FAA mentioned it accomplished six of the watchdog’s seven suggestions aside from one, which requires it to make adjustments to the way it evaluates objectivity of inspectors to incorporate potential points such because the period of time they’re reviewing the identical airline. The FAA mentioned it requested an extension till August.