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May 9, 2013

In This Issue:

CALL TO ACTION: Stop the Creation of a New CBP Preclearance Site in Abu Dhabi
Senators Speak Out on Abu Dhabi Preclearance Facility
Pilot Assistance Forum Concludes in Herndon
The Delta Family Tree
Flooding Pummels Midwest, AERF Available

Getting Fit Between Flights
News on the Net
 

CALL TO ACTION: Stop the Creation of a New CBP Preclearance Site in Abu Dhabi

The U.S. and United Arab Emirates (UAE) governments are moving toward the creation of a new U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) preclearance facility at Abu Dhabi International Airport. An Abu Dhabi CBP preclearance facility may be great news for state-owned Etihad, but for U.S. pilots, it means just another competitive advantage handed to foreign airlines by flawed U.S. policy. The good news is we have the ability to stop this proposal—by contacting the White House and Congress today and telling them that this proposal represents a serious threat to our jobs and the U.S. airline industry.

Read more about “Playing Hardball in Washington, D.C.” and “UAE’s Long-Haul Vision” in this month’s Air Line Pilot magazine.

Contact your legislators today.

Senators Speak Out on Abu Dhabi Preclearance Facility

Eleven senators sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano yesterday questioning the administration’s authority to proceed with the creation of a CBP preclearance facility in Abu Dhabi. ALPA has been actively urging members of Congress to weigh in with the administration over the Abu Dhabi facility, which ALPA strongly opposes.

Read the full story.

Pilot Assistance Forum Concludes in Herndon

ALPA ended its 2013 Pilot Assistance Forum today after three days of in-depth discussions on issues ranging from sleep apnea to helping pilots make a smooth transition after an airline merger. The PA Forum gathers volunteers from five ALPA disciplines: Aeromedical, Critical Incident Response, HIMS, Professional Standards, and Canadian Pilot Assistance. Formerly included in the Association’s annual Air Safety Forum, the PA Forum was held as its own stand-alone conference for the first time in several years. Thanks in part to the change, attendance at this year’s forum was more than twice as large as past meetings, with almost 200 attendees representing ALPA pilot groups, government, airline management, aerospace medicine, and non-ALPA airlines from the United States and around the world.

Read the full story.

The Delta Family Tree

The Spring 2013 issue of The Widget, the official publication of the Delta MEC, includes the Delta Family Tree with a detailed look at the birth of an airline. From the Delta Air Corporation’s Huff Daland Dusting Company crop-dusting enterprise of the 1920s and the Northwest Airways airmail carrier operation that began in 1926 arose one of the world’s largest global airlines, employing nearly 12,000 pilots helping more than 160 million travelers get to the places they want to go to each year.

Send your story to us at FastRead@alpa.org.

See the Delta Family Tree.

Flooding Pummels Midwest, AERF Available

Excessive flooding in the Midwest has prompted the governors in both Iowa and Illinois to issue disaster declarations for particularly hard-hit counties. The ALPA Emergency Relief Fund stands ready to assist members who need help in these and other affected areas.

AERF provides for the immediate needs of all ALPA pilots and their families who fall victim to widespread disasters. Funded largely by contributions from ALPA members and staff, AERF covers early out-of-pocket expenses to help pilots and their families recover faster. Read an article in the April 2013 issue of Air Line Pilot magazine about how AERF met the needs of dozens of ALPA pilots whose lives were disrupted by last October’s Hurricane Sandy.

To learn more about the fund, make a donation, or request a grant, visit www.alpa.org/relieffund.

Getting Fit Between Flights

Be sure to check out the May edition of Air Line Pilot magazine to learn your option for getting a workout in before taking off. This article goes through some of the convenient options at airports in the United States and Canada and around the world.

Read the whole article.

News on the Net
FEEDBACK & EMAIL ADDRESS CHANGES

Questions or comments on this FastRead? Give us your feedback at communications@alpa.org.

If you have moved or changed your ISP or e-mail address, please update your ALPA records. If you don’t, you will no longer receive the ALPA FastRead and other e-mail bulletins and notices, and once your postal forwarding order expires, you’ll no longer receive the magazine and other ALPA mail. You can do it yourself by going to www.alpa.org and logging in. Go to “My ALPA” in the menu at the top of the page, and from there, you’ll be instructed how to make the necessary changes.

If you don’t have access to the members-only section of www.alpa.org, you can e-mail your requests by sending them to membership@alpa.org. Be sure to include your member number or enough other information so that we can identify you in the membership database, and tell us what information needs to be updated.

Please note that it is not sufficient just to notify your LEC or MEC of these changes—you should register them with the ALPA Membership Department in Herndon.

Can’t remember your member number or how to log in? Need information about your ALPA insurance programs? These and other questions about ALPA services can be answered by contacting membership@alpa.org.

ALPA represents more than 50,000 pilots at 33 airlines in the United States and Canada.
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