#REAUTHORIZATION MADNESS (April 2023)
WHY PISS #ALPA OFF? A fool's errand when political capital is scarce.
Still in the vortex of the finest 30 days in sports television. From Selection Show Sunday through the second Sunday in April in Augusta, it doesn't get better. No #1 seeds in the Elite 8, let alone the Final Four? Madness getting increasingly mad. Parity doesn't know a Power 5 conference from another. Florida Atlantic?
FYI, FAU is in Boca Raton. The closest commercial air service is FLL (1h 6m), PBI (1h 53m). No diatribe here about small community air service - the issue is now a bore for me - at least directly. After 10 years, if you don't get it - you don't get it.
Last week, I implored decision makers to find minutes in the system. What product does this industry produce? It is time saved for the consumer traveling between nodes A and B relative to some competing mode.
With rare exception, certainly not from the airport community that has much to gain, no stakeholder is proposing time saved as a foundational priority. The issue requires a tourniquet not a band aid. The industry is "bleeding out" efficiencies that might translate into consumer benefits.
For airports, minutes saved would enable airlines to add service without increasing its workforce; For consumer advocates there would likely be less schedule disruptions from new age aircraft routings; For environmentalists there would be less carbon emission; and flights to FL would not require being "regulated" the USG.
Now a push from #RAA #NACA to raise the retirement age for pilots engaged in commercial aviation operations ... Named: ‘‘Let Experienced Pilots Fly Act’’. It is not that simple. It is opposed by ALPA. #SWAPA is in support - airports too. It is a band aid that will fix nothing. Think long-term? Nah - Ya' know, the problems will just go away, and my lost air service will return.
Only a Part 135 operation #SkyWest proposed months ago might restore some lost service. That ain't happening either.
Flight Safety Foundation: “We believe that the law’s flight-hour credit provision is entirely justified on the basis of quality of experience and not merely quantity of experience ... [ALPA] has dismissed and distorted proposals to expand these very structured training pathways".
I am disgusted with ALPA too. But leave the #,### alone.
5 real world imperatives for today's world:
1. Find/create minutes - It will benefit all stakeholders;
2. Mandate ALPA meet and confer on pilot training rather than deflect and distort in the name of safety;
3. The USG should defray any/all associated costs to train skilled workers in an industry (paid by EAS savings) that facilitates economic velocity [THE NEW ESSENTIAL];
4. Airports receiving service today in need of gate/hold room fixes should be prioritized;
5. Common sense an EAS program that spends 50% of its funding to subsidize service when a larger airport with better air service is within 120 miles.
More to come - Lots to say.