Professional Aviation Organizations

As an aviation industry professional it is important to belong to a professional association within your profession. Whether you are a pilot, mechanic, air traffic controller, management, or any other aviation professional there are different professional associations that you can belong to.

As a pilot there are many associations with a variety of different missions and functions that one can belong to.  Although there are many others, some popular ones associations include: Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, Experimental Aircraft Association, Regional Airline Association, Air Line Pilots Association, and the National Business Aviation Association.

Since I have not yet fully committed to whether I want to pursue a career as an airline pilot or a corporate pilot, I have chosen the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA).

The ALPA describes in their mission statement that they represent over 51,000 airline pilots of both U.S. and Canada airlines, making them the world’s largest union for airline pilots. As described in their mission statement, they promote safety, assist in collective bargaining for their pilots, and also defend their pilot’s rights by representing pilot when negotiating their contracts. ALPA represents pilots with legislation in both the U.S. and Canada in the form of lobbying. They also provide insurance for pilots and their families ("ALPA Member Insurance > Home," n.d.). Some of the Airlines that ALPA represents include Delta, United, Spirit, Alaska, and ExpressJet. Last year, Jet Blue, who was previously a non-union airline voted to become part of the ALPA union and it passed with 71% of the vote (Mouawad, 2014).

The NBAA’s mission statement is short and to the point, “To foster an environment that allows business aviation to thrive in the United States and around the world” ("About NBAA," n.d.).  As we discussed in a previous blog post, business aviation is a vitally important aspect of the aviation industry and for the corporate business world as well. NBAA represents large flight departments down to individual single-engine pilots that use their plane for business. In the past several years, the Obama administration has been trying to implement “user fees” of $100 per IFR flight in a turbine driven. This would affect the business aviation world most significantly. The NBAA fought back by joining 26 other associations and basically told the Obama administration to give up on implementing this tax and that it would hurt the industry (Spruce, 2011). It seems to have worked. The administration recently repealed their decision to try to push these “user fees” for the fiscal year of 2016 (Lynch, 2015).

As an aviation professional, it is important to be in one or multiple aviation associations.  The benefits range widely from organization to organization but the missions are almost always to promote safety in aviation. The more members these organizations have, the more powerful they can be when under attack from legislation or other agencies.

References

About NBAA. (n.d.). Retrieved April 11, 2015, from http://www.nbaa.org/about/

Alpa About ALPA Who We Are. (n.d.). Retrieved April 11, 2015, from http://www.alpa.org/AboutALPA/WhoWeAre/tabid/2030/Default.aspx

ALPA Member Insurance Home. (n.d.). Retrieved April 11, 2015, from http://memberinsurance.alpa.org/

Lynch, K. (2015, February 02). White House Scraps Aviation User Fee Push For FY2016. Retrieved April 11, 2015, from http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2015-02-02/white-house-scraps-aviation-user-fee-push-fy2016

Mouawad, J. (2014, April 22). JetBlue Airways’ Pilots Vote to Join Union. Retrieved April 11, 2015, from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/business/pilots-at-jetblue-vote-to-join-a-union.html?_r=0

NBAA - National Business Aviation Association. (n.d.). Retrieved April 11, 2015, from http://www.nbaa.org/

Pope, S. (2013, April 11). President Obama's $100 User Fee Plan is DOA: Here's Why. Retrieved April 11, 2015, from http://www.flyingmag.com/blogs/fly-wire/president-obamas-100-user-fee-plan-doa-heres-why

Spruce, T. (2011, September 22). NBAA joins other industry groups opposing new taxes and user fees - Corporate Jet Investor. Retrieved April 12, 2015, from http://corporatejetinvestor.com/articles/nbaa_joins_other_indutry_groups_opposing_new_taxes_and_user_fees_258/