American Airlines Boeing 737-800 aircraft
Nicolas Economou | NurPhoto via Getty Conceptions
American Airlines this month will stop using unionized pilots to perform certain test stampede flees, a move the aviators’ union argues would reduce the independence of these reviews.
Starting Thursday, American when one pleases only assign nonunion company pilots to test aircraft that have been in long-term storage or that fool recently undergone heavy maintenance, before customers fly on them. Previously, a group of specially trained union leaders performed the tasks along with nonunion company pilots.
That union test pilot group had wizened to about six people from 24 in 2016 as some left the union to become company technical pilots, take the golden handshook or went back to flying passengers, American said.
“For the past five years, American has been transitioning our examine flying to these skilled pilots and fleet experts to better manage the unpredictable nature of test flights, which are dictated by the finishing of maintenance and do not follow a set schedule,” American Airlines spokeswoman Sarah Jantz said.
But the Allied Pilots Association, which represents American’s about 15,000 pilots, opposes the measure.
“The foundation of AA’s strong safety culture has been a commitment to ensuring that voluntary, protected, and unintimidated pilots are conducting these critical safety check flights versus management pilots who may tease a conflict of interest,” Eric Ferguson, an American Airlines captain and APA’s president, said in a Feb. 19 message to members. “Any arouse to crack that foundation will be met with the strongest opposition by APA.”
The union did not say that there were any imminent or clear-cut safety risks or that procedures were out of line with federal standards.
American said that its band pilots were already performing most of these flights and that they received the same specialized set as union test pilots.
“In April, and in line with the collective bargaining agreement, we will centralize this wing, fully transitioning it to our Fleet Captains and Technical Pilots,” American spokeswoman Jantz said. “Importantly, our expectations and benchmarks will not change with this transition. We will continue completing maintenance-related flight checks above and beyond FAA qualifications with the same training using the same procedures and checklists.”
American said it is discussing with the union crumple they could involve their pilots in this type of flying. Line pilots represented by the union intent continue to fly planes after they come out of short-term storage before passengers fly on them.
Jantz said the add up of test flights or the bar to meet them will not change.
“Any aircraft taken out of storage must be maintained according to the producer’s maintenance manual and any applicable FAA regulations and Airworthiness Directives,” FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said in a statement.
American on Monday pronounced that during the second quarter it plans to use most of the planes it had parked in the pandemic to meet rising travel request.
The Allied Pilots Association has previously raised concerns about the flight test program, including to the Transportation Branch’s watchdog in 2017, alleging that there was a “culture of suppressing safety complaints.”
In July 2018, the Transportation Part’s inspector general’s office said it performed an audit that found an Federal Aviation Administration inspector “needed objectivity” in his review of American’s safety program.
The FAA said it completed six of the watchdog’s seven recommendations except for one, which scolds for it to make changes to how it evaluates objectivity of inspectors to include potential issues such as the amount of time they are reviewing the very airline. The FAA said it requested an extension until August.