Originally Posted by
sailingfun
ALPA has not legal way to do anything that you suggest. We come under totally different rules and regulations. The RLA being the principle one. The FAA might also object to ALPA taking over one of their main jobs.
Yes, there are many hurdles to overcome for us to recapture political control of our profession. What I'm saying is that it's unlikely that we'll see a time where the industry and the government is going to be in such a bind. They'll need help. We are in a unique position to provide it... for a price.
The FAA is facing a huge budget deficit. They should have privatized ATC years ago, and have become too bloated to be an effective regulatory agency. What do they really check any more-- placards on the fuselage, logbook writeups... By taking over some of the licensing functions, for example, we (ALPA or whomever) could alleviate some of those costs and streamline the training to airline users. We then can be in charge of our own profession... imagine that! We're pretty much already doing that with AQP. Let's split off airplanes, airports and airspace from airmen and stop being everybody's b####.