Airlines Lobbie the White House
 

For this of you that haven't seen this, please take a minute and read the presentation that the President of American Airlines, CEO of American Eagle used during his visit to the White House last fall as the 1,500 hr rule and the new rest rules where being evaluated by our current administration!

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/defa...10122011-1.pdf

Ya know dude, thanks for the post but I'm not even going to look at it. Things like this just get me so fired up. :mad:

Actually a good article for pilots.

Seems pretty much in line with the typical management hissy fit "we're going to have to pay more to hire more to cover flying." That, in line with the low-timers complaining they NEED to get on at an airline with 500TT because their Riddle or ATP training has totally prepared them for the 121 cockpit.

The one group of people you see with a bit of sense in the argument is the higher time pilots who have actually been there, done that.

I think I just vomited

Like I wrote on another thread, the solution is really simple. Pay pilots more. Do what every other industry does, and compete for skilled labor. Pay enough and there will be no shortage. Make better work rules. Raise ticket prices. Maybe the airline industry needs to shrink a little. Maybe smaller markets that are unprofitable shouldn't be served. God forbid people have to drive an hour farther to get to an airport and fly to a hub.

Why are google and Facebook such great places to work? Because they compete hard to acquire skilled programmers and designers. The way of the future might be increasing the number of smaller planes, but I think the public would rather have well-paid and well-rested (and somewhat happy) pilots that the alternative.

The unions should start a public campaign - "Would you pay $3 more per ticket to have a well qualified, well rested pilot?"

Isn't that old news given the NPRM that just came? Not trying to be mean. I do find it funny how bigh the numbers are that mgt qoutes as being necessary due to the rest rules. *If* the posts I have read on APC are correct, mgt will be able to tinker with numbers and schedules to need very little to NO more pilots. Scare tactics.

Also of note, I see some airlines minimums (regionals) are just starting to rise up to 135 minimums. What an interesting shift in the paradigm from the 90's....

"Short Call Reserve - Time spend on short call reserve should not be included as part of duty, until the pilot is called and notified of his/her assignment"

That sounds fair and safe, wait at home all day from 6AM - 7:59PM and then get a call for a CDO, Highspeed, stand-up where you could technically fly all night until 8AM the next morning. That would be a 26 hour duty period. How can they argue this point with a straight face? Where is the Union's rebuttal presentation?

Funny thing about this article and presentation is that it doesn't show how much they are paying these poor guys.

Not just a good article for pilots. The flying public needs to read this. Airlines always talk about safety first, but this article never mentions safety. It proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that airline management is only worried about the financial impact of these new safety rules.

So send it to some flying magazines or a newspaper. I don't remember how long ago this was - may be old news.

I think you are absolutely right that there was no mention whatsoever about safety, which is always given lip service as being the number one priority at the airlines, and no mention about actual pilot wages and how much they have suffered since 9/11 in real terms. There's also no mention about the investment in time and money it takes to become a pilot.

"for items not under control of the air carrier (i.e. weather, ATe, mechanical issues)"

Yeah, mechanical issues are uncontrollable. What a joke!

As far as short call reserve not being considered duty time... this has already been visited by the FAA (Whitlow Letter). If you're required to be answering a phone, you're ON DUTY! Period.

I also like the part about "(c) reduced attractiveness of the commercial pilot profession". Gee, I wonder why that is the case!

Bingo... what a joke.