Aviation Industry Updates: April 1, 2020

FAA issues Safety Alert due to temporary aircraft parking concerns

KEY POINTS:

• Check NOTAMS as each airport’s condition will be different

• Pilots should be alert for ILS inaccuracies due to potential ground interference

• Report any navigation issues immediately so maintenance can check system health

• Be careful while taxiing, whole airports are now a hot spots

>> Click here to read the entire Safety Alert (SAFO 20005: Temporary Parking of Overflow Aircraft)

FAA authorizes extensions for airman medical requirements

KEY POINTS:

• Recent events regarding the COVID pandemic have led to significant access problems to Aviation Medical Examiners and other medical specialists.

• In response, the FAA will not enforce airman medical certificates which expire between the dates of March 31, 2020 and June 30, 2020.

• The period of non-enforcement will be in place thru June 30, 2020.

• The specific language for this enforcement policy was published in the Federal Register and will be available online.

>> Click here to read the entire FAA Policy

American Airlines management makes big mistake

KEY POINTS:

• Management informed APA a few minutes ago that it unilaterally decided not to award any paid Voluntary Short Term Leaves of Absence (VSTLOA) or unpaid Voluntary Extended Leaves of Absence (VELOA) for any 737 or 320 bid status for the month of April. 

• Management intends to award wide-body and the E-190 bid statuses for April with a new effective date of April 6, 2020, but has still not finalized those awards. 

• “This incomprehensible April Fool’s joke leaves us at a loss for words. We are meeting with management and will continue to provide updates.” -APA

According to a recent CNBC article titled: American Airlines apologizes for mistakenly offering dozens of pilots voluntary leave amid Coronavirus

American Airlines apologized to its pilots on Wednesday after mistakenly offering thousands of aviators voluntary leave options as part of the company’s effort to cut costs to fight Coronavirus’ toll on travel demand.

American had “either by miscalculation or miscommunication wrongly indicated” that a minimum of 1,200 pilots who fly Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 narrowbody aircraft could take short term leave, according to an email to pilots from Kimball Stone, American’s senior vice president of flight operations, which was reviewed by CNBC.

>> Click here to read the CNBC article

>> Click here to visit the APA’s Facebook page to learn more