3 min read

Aviation Industry Updates: June 6, 2023

FedEx Pilots Reach Tentative Agreement with Company on New Contract

KEY POINTS:

  • On Tuesday, May 30, FedEx pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA), reached a tentative agreement (TA) with FedEx management on an amended collective bargaining agreement. The pilots last signed a contract in 2015; ALPA and FedEx began negotiations in May 2021 and have been in mediation with the National Mediation Board since November 2022.
  • “For more than two years, our pilots have demonstrated their unwavering support of our Negotiating Committee, and just two weeks ago voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike,” said Capt. Chris Norman, chair of the FedEx ALPA Master Executive Council (MEC). “This tentative agreement represents the culmination of a tremendous effort, and would not have been possible without the solidarity, patience, and determination of every FedEx pilot.”
  • The TA is subject to the finalization of contract language. Terms of the TA are not being released, as they first must be reviewed and approved by the FedEx MEC. If approved, the TA will be subject to a ratification vote of the FedEx pilots.
  • “Throughout the negotiations process, it has been the unity of our pilots that moved the needle and helped deliver this tentative agreement,” said Capt. Norman. “We thank our pilots for their continued professionalism and willingness to show up and be counted when it mattered most.”
ALPA

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Other Airline Pilots Have Deals. United Pilots Will Have A Strike Authorization Vote

KEY POINTS:

  • United Airlines pilots, frustrated by the slow pace of contract talks, will vote on whether to authorize a strike.
  • “With each passing day, United pilots become more frustrated and more disenfranchised with this management team,” Garth Thompson, chairman of the United chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association, said Friday in an interview. “To have to conduct a strike authorization vote soon is not what pilots were looking for.”
  • The strike authorization vote is likely to be completed in July, Thompson said. The master executive council voted unanimously, 23-0, in favor of taking the vote.
  • Such votes usually result in approval for strike authorization. But a strike, if there were to be one, would not interfere with summer travel because the Railway Labor Act establishes an extremely difficult and time-consuming path to calling one, and even then union members can be ordered back to work.
  • Asked why United will become the last of the three global U.S. carriers to get a deal or tentative deal, Thompson said, “United is worse than third. Alaska, JetBlue, Spirit, Delta, and now FedEx” have deals, and American pilots have an agreement in principle.

Forbes


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ALPA President Chides American Pilots For Contract Deal And Merger Rejection

KEY POINTS:

  • ALPA President Jason Ambrosi says the union that represents American Airlines pilots should have gotten a better contract for its members and should have agreed to look seriously at a merger with ALPA.
  • In a memo sent Saturday to the Air Line Pilots Association executive board, Ambrosi complimented ALPA for its recent successes in negotiating contracts with several airlines. But he noted,
  • “Unfortunately, the American Airlines agreement negotiated by the Allied Pilots Association failed to raise the bar for our industry.
  • “Through pattern bargaining, ALPA pilot groups will continue to push the upper limits in negotiating to improve our profession,” Ambrosi wrote, noting “Our strength and unity have been on exceptional display recently. We’ve shown once again that ALPA pilots are stronger together—and that we achieve results like no one else.”
  • APA spokesman Dennis Tajer said Sunday, “We certainly respect the leader of 74,000 pilots, but the 15,000 pilots of American Airlines will make the final call on the contract.”

Forbes


Ameriflight Approved For Large-Scale Drone Delivery Service

KEY POINTS:

  • Dallas-based Ameriflight is the nation’s largest Part 135 Cargo airline, offering 1,500 weekly cargo departures from 14 bases to 200 destinations. And it will offer something else “very soon”—commercial drone deliveries from coast to coast.
  • Ameriflight announced Tuesday that the Federal Aviation Administration has given it approval to operate drone aircraft, making it the first existing Part 135 Cargo airline to be granted the exemption.
  • The company also received FAA approval to add Matternet M2 drones to its fleet of over 100 crewed aircraft, enabling the launch of what Ameriflight calls “the first fully operational, large-scale drone operation in the United States.”
  • “The approval to add drones to our operation positions Ameriflight, once again, at the forefront of innovation in the aviation industry,” Owner and Chairman Jim Martell said in a statement. “Moving forward with the future of our newly operative UAS division allows us to expand into a largely untapped delivery market with a lot of room for speed and safety logistic improvements.”

Dallas Innovate


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2023 HIRING EVENTS

American Meet the Chiefs | JUN 20 | IAH

OBAP | AUG 9-11 | MSY

LPA | SEP 14-16 | ISM

RTAG | OCT 7-8 | FTW

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