New First Officer Qualification Rule Helps Collegiate Aviation Program

Earlier this year, several ALPA members who are alumni of Auburn University’s aviation management and professional flight programs informed the Association’s leadership the school’s plans to eliminate those programs due to a lack of resources for them. Based on ALPA’s knowledge of the then-pending Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) first officer qualification final rule and the growing need for more airline pilots, ALPA president Capt. Lee Moak wrote to the university’s president urging the school to retain and improve the program instead. Shortly after the FAA issued its final rule last week, Auburn University announced its intentions to do that very thing.

In a letter from the university last week, it was announced that “Auburn will continue and strengthen both the professional flight management and aviation management degree programs.” The school has determined that it will address needs for better facilities and “in response to the [FAA’s] recently released final rule on pilot certification, we will pursue the authority to certify our graduates for an airline transport pilot certificate.” The school’s decision gives additional validation to ALPA’s belief that the new first officer qualifications rule will not only enhance safety and the status of the profession, it will also benefit the many institutions of higher learning that are so critical to the development of the highly trained and educated aviators needed to fill the cockpits of today’s airliners.

It has been estimated that 1,000 ALPA members are alumni of the school’s aviation program, which is the oldest continuously operated program in the United States, and has a long, distinguished history of aviation education and flight training dating back to the Wright brothers and including the famed Tuskegee Airmen.

ALPA has also urged St. Cloud State University, which has also announced plans to eliminate its aviation programs, to instead maintain and improve them for the same reasons as those given to Auburn University.