Regional Airlines Reject ALPA Claims Of ATP Surplus

The Regional Airline Association is accusing the Air Line Pilots Association of "gatekeeping" to limit the supply of pilots and ensure the continuation of fat contracts for its members. "It is long past time for industry and policymakers to call this harmful tactic exactly what it is: gatekeeping, which stands as an affront to all who work to build greater equity, diversity and inclusion in aviation careers," RAA said in a blistering rebuttal to ALPA's claims that there is actually a surplus of new airline pilots in the pipeline. In a news release last week, the union used FAA statistics to show that more ATP-MELs were created in the first 11 months of this year than in 2019 and that there are also more qualified CFIs. But RAA said ALPA's presentation of the naked facts failed to give context to the numbers.

"ALPA leadership fails to control for or acknowledge a known backlog of disrupted ATP/RATP qualifications from 2020 and 2021 that are now qualifying, which has artificially boosted 2022 numbers," the RAA response says. "If those backlog certificates are removed from the 2022 figures, the adjusted 2022 production rate would be below average." Further, the association claims that the numbers of commercial multi-engine graduates, the source of new ATPs, is down by about half and spells big trouble for future pilot production.

The RAA also hits back at ALPA's claims that airlines manufactured the pilot shortage to cover for their own managerial ineptitude and to pressure governments to relax training requirements for new airline pilots at the expense of safety. The FAA recently rejected a bid by Republic Airlines to reduce the number of hours required for new first officers from 1500 to 750 hours for graduates of its focused training program. The association said no one wants to sacrifice safety but the issues must be addressed. "This includes the importance of evolving pilot training opportunities to enhance, not detract from, aviation safety," the association said. "However, RAA firmly rejects transparent gatekeeping efforts that mischaracterize proposed improvements to pilot training and career access as anti-safety."