Reducing Aviation’s Impact on the Environment

Over the past 40 years, the North American airline industry has increased aircraft payload capacity six-fold while concurrently using 60 percent less fuel. Technological improvements in navigation and surveillance have contributed tremendously to improved capacity and operational efficiency in the National Airspace System (NAS), leading to growth in operations without a corresponding increase in aviation’s carbon “footprint.” ALPA strongly supports reducing aviation’s small overall percentage of adverse impact on the environment, partly by advocating for the implementation of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen).
Aviation Sustainability and the Environment White Paper

Producing Professional Airline Pilots

The best and most important safety feature on any airplane is a well-trained, highly motivated and professional pilot. Today’s archaic regulations, however, allow airlines to hire low-experience pilots into the right seat of high-speed, complex, swept-wing jet aircraft in what amounts to on-the-job training with paying passengers on board. That’s why ALPA calls for a complete overhaul of pilot selection and training methods as well as increase mentoring of pilots by their more experienced colleagues.
Pilot Training and Professionalism Position Paper | Producing a Professional Airline Pilot White Paper

Airspace System Modernization

Delays and similar problems currently plague the Air Traffic Control system today, clearly underscoring the critical need for ongoing National Airspace System Modernization. The problem: those technological updates, in the form of NextGen, come with a $40 billion price tag. Long-term federal funding of the Nation’s airspace and air traffic control infrastructure is essential, and ALPA is working with the FAA and stakeholders to insure that your airline pilot participates in all of these ATC system upgrade discussions.
Position Paper

Safeguarding Shipments of Lithium Batteries

Lithium batteries provide essential power for millions of Americans every day as they use laptop computers, cell phones, flashlights, and cameras. ALPA is not calling for new restrictions on what passengers are permitted to bring aboard aircraft, but the world’s largest non-governmental aviation safety organization is extremely concerned about the risk from transporting lithium batteries aboard aircraft as cargo. ALPA has long advocated for improved transport requirements. Since 2004, ALPA has urged the Department of Transportation to fully regulate these batteries as dangerous goods, including requiring appropriate packaging, labeling, marking, testing, and pilot notification. Position Paper

Making Runways Safer than Ever

Increased amounts of air traffic, especially at the highest-volume U.S. and Canadian airports, makes runway safety today more important than ever. ALPA puts pressure on airports and regulators to improve runway design, signage, and technologies. The Association also encourages the airlines to improve training and operational procedures that will help pilots avoid errors on the ground. After all, nothing can replace the awareness of a pilot in the cockpit. ALPA’s Hold Short for Runway Safety web site provides pilots with commonsense guidance that will help prevent operational breakdowns and houses much of ALPA’s runway safety educational materials.
Runway Incursion White Paper

Mitigating Wildlife Hazards

The potential for bird strikes is a risk that is far from new—in fact, the Wright brothers recorded the first bird strike in 1905. Striking large birds at high speeds may result in catastrophic damage to an aircraft engine or an airframe, however, and that’s why ALPA makes sure the industry awareness of this issue remains high. If a 4-pound bird struck an aircraft traveling 250 knots, it delivers the force of approximately 38,000 pounds at the point of impact. ALPA’s safety efforts focus on reducing the possibility of a wildlife strike and the severity of the consequences. Position Paper | Wildlife Hazard Mitigation Strategies for Pilots White Paper

Creating One Level of Safety

Since the mid 1980s, ALPA has been striving to achieve the goal of "One Level of Safety" for the traveling public and our pilot members. This means that government regulators should require the same high safety standards on all commercial flights—regardless of the size of the aircraft, the number of passengers, or the cargo load. In 1995, the FAA agreed with ALPA’s arguments and, with minor exceptions, required all 10+ passenger commercial aircraft to meet the Part 121 requirements. The agency even adopted ALPA’s campaign slogan.

ALPA’s tremendously successful efforts did not eliminate each and every difference in safety standards for all types of commercial air service, however. The Association’s specific concerns include the differences in the application of some regulations between passenger and cargo operations. While the disparities are not as great as those between Part 121, Part 135, or the various Canadian Aviation Regulations, ALPA sees no logical justification for these distinctions. The bottom line: Cargo aircraft share airspace with passenger airliners, and cargo pilots deserve the same safety protections as their counterparts at passenger airlines.