Section 217: A Problem for the Aviation Industry
On a cold February evening in 2009, just outside the city of Buffalo, New York, two pilots crashed a new aircraft on final approach to land into Buffalo Niagara International Airport. In an effort to prevent an accident of a similar nature from happening, the U.S. Congress passed H.R. 5900, the ‘Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act.’ This bill under Title II was aimed to enhance airline safety and in part prevent an accident of this nature from occurring again (U.S. House 2010). Section 217 of the bill pushes the minimum hours required to act as a pilot on a regional carrier up to 1,500 total flight hours and requires those persons to do an extensive Air Transport Pilots examination (U.S. House 2010). Although some parts of this law encourage safety, it has the potential to cripple the aviation industry. This is so because of the predicted shortage of pilots in the coming years, lost interest of young pilots, potential higher prices for consumers, and loss of jobs.
The view that there is a pilot shortage impending has been echoed by many including Louis Smith, president of FLTOps, a website geared towards finding pilots jobs and providing assistance in résumé building. He states, “Pilot hiring was severely depressed in the last three years. The next ten years will be the exact opposite, with the longest and largest pilot hiring boom in the history of the industry" (Jones). This predicted pilot shortage within the next few years is brought on by several reasons: the retiring of older pilots from major U.S. carriers, the moving of many pilots to Asia and the Middle East, and the increasing traffic in the United States to coincide with a growth of the ...
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Jones, Charisse. "Demand for airline pilots set to soar." Usa today. USA TODAY, 2011. Web. 20 Mar. 2012.
Lowy, Joan. "Airlines oppose law increasing pilot flight hours." USA TODAY Travel Network 14 Oct. 2010. Web. 08 Mar. 2012.
Sullenberger, Chesley. Interview with CBS This Morning. "FAA proposes new rules for co-pilots." Breaking News Headlines: Business, Entertainment & World News - CBS News, 28 Feb. 2012. Web. 5 Mar. 2012.
United States. National Transportation Safety Board. “Loss of control on approach, Colgan Air, Inc. operating as Continental Connection Flight 3407, Bombardier DHC-8-400, N200WQ Clarence Center, New York, February 12, 2009.”, 2010. Web. 4 Feb. 2012.
U.S. House. 2010. Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010. US 111th Cong., 2nd sess. R. Doc. 3. Washington: GPO, 1 Aug. 2010. Web. 7 Mar. 2012.
Growth of commercial aviation was greatly influenced when the U.S. Air Mail Service was created in the early 1920’s. The Post Office was one of the first to impose aviation regulations. It required its pilots to be tested, pass medical exams and have at least 500 hours of flying experience. The Post Office set up aircraft inspection schedules and preventive maintenance programs for the pilots to have a safe airplane to fly. These early regulatory requirements improved air carrier safety.
The immediate financial repercussions of the terrorist attacks were astronomical. Makinen (2002) reports airlines received a $15 billion federal aid package. Additionally, insurance ...
“What time should we leave? Two hours in advance? Three? Four?” Millions of people ask these questions each year before boarding a plane. Between driving, security, walking to the gate, and getting settled, boarding a plane exhausts travelers. But out of all of these different activities, one frustrates and restrains travelers the most: TSA security. People ask why they need all this security, complain about the inconvenience it causes, and ultimately annoys people to no end. Created after 9/11, Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, nationalized airport security, increased screening duration, and supposedly increases security on flights. However, statistics say these added security measures never come to fruition and potentially cost more lives than they save.
Reviewing the editorial entitled “Not Just Public Unions: Private Sector Unions Hurting Business” written by Mr. Stephen DeMaura, the author presents the issue of American Airline (AA) pilots not receiving the support from the Allied Pilots Association (ALPA), the AA pilots’ union. The editorial describes how the AA pilots’ union failed them by “… rejecting a concessionary contract offered by management. The contract included pay raises and a 13.5 percent stake in the company… (DeMaura, 2012). In order to look at why ALPA refused a contract which the airlines’ management put on the table for the benefit of their pilots, a look at the state of union relations within the airline industry in the United States needs to be reviewed. Nevertheless, at the end of doing a review why ALPA refused such a contract, it was the relentless efforts of the pilots to fight for their rights which changed what would have been a bad outcome for the pilots if they would taken ALPA’s representation.
So the legislative status of the re-regulatory fever is still in doubt. But with a Republican Congress which seems to advocate that position, an airline bill could still pass which takes the aviation industry in the wrong direction.
After World War II there was an excess of aircraft and trained pilots in the United States, which significantly increase in private and commercial flights. An increase in the use of private aircraft and large passenger planes meant an increase in the possibly of aircraft safety incidents. Even though safety measures had been put in place to tend to large number of aircraft in the skies, in late 1950’s there were two unfortunate accidents that finally led to legislation that would be a major change to the world of aviation that affects us even today. The introduction of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 spurred several changes in aviation that eventually led to the creation of the Federal Aviation Administration.
According to the International Air Transport Association, 2001 was only the second year in the history of civil aviation in which international traffic declined. Overall, it is believed that the IATA membership of airlines collectively lost more than US$12 billion during this time (Dixon, 2002).
Stewart, D.R. "TSA Exempts Pilots, Flight Attendants from New Security Rules." Tulsa World (OK) 27 Nov. 2010: Newspaper Source Plus. Web. 7 May 2014.
Clark, P. (2010, June 8).Europe airlines struggle for take-off as rivals gain speed. Financial Times, p.15.
The main opportunities that the scheduled air transportation will have in the next five years are the possible decrease of TSA agents at airports, technology increasing the safety and comfort of the flights for the passengers and ...
Jones, D. (2005, July 15). Pilot seniority a hot issue at merging airlines . In FAPA.Aero. Retrieved February 3, 2014, from http://fapa.aero/content.asp?ID=69&Gateway=Industry
Introduction Plane crashes occur for a number of reasons. There seems to be a consensus with the general public that flying is dangerous, engines fail and planes crash. That is true sometimes, although the majority of plane crashes occur largely due to a combination of human error and mechanical failure. In many aviation accidents mechanical failure has been a contributing factor. It is impossible, however, to blame plane crashes on one reason, since events leading up to an accident are so varied.
...cident. That is why there is so much precautions is required. Throughout history the only reason why air travel is as big as it is is because air travel happens to be the safest form of travel in the world, it is even safer than traveling in the household car. The first rule of travelling anywhere is safety. And the creation of the FAA makes air travel safer than a lot of the other travelling methods that we have.
Simmon, David A. (1998). Boeing 757 CFIT Accident at Cali, Columbia, Becomes Focus of Lessons Learned. Flight Safety Digest.
This will lead to the limitations on the number of routes the international carriers fly, flight schedules, fares, etc. The past five years witnessed an increase in the cost of fuel, leading many airlines into bankruptcies, which resulted in consequences such as the $30 billion loss faced by the US airline industry as estimated by the US Airport Transport Association. One of the major political factor of globalization that affected airline industry was 9/11. In order to deter future terrorist threats, several security rules and regulations were enforced, which led to the increased cost of aviation operators to administer the fundamental training and personnel to follow these rules. Additionally, the post 9/11 period saw a decline in passenger and consumer requirements, negatively affecting the airline profits. There was a revenue drop of dollar 22 billion and three years were taken to recover them. But these revenues were dropped by 14% during the global financial crisis during the years 2008 and 2009, which was reclaimed to a large extend in the following year. The 9/11 period brought forward a huge global impact such as decline in traffic, revenues and profitability, increase in oil price and bankruptcies,