Airline pilots’ employment and working conditions have been the focus of various European studies in the past. While most studies explore how new business models affect crews’ employment terms and conditions, little has been done to map the safety impact stemming from these changes. To fill this gap, this new survey is initiated by the Karolinska Institute – a renowned research-led medical university – aimed at airline pilots from across Europe. The survey is a part of an ongoing research project on ‘sustainable flight safety’ ...
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The ETF, EFFAT, UNI Europa, IndustriAll Europe and ECA welcome the Toulouse Declaration on future sustainability and decarbonisation in aviation, which was adopted on 4 February 2022 the Aviation Summit under the French presidency of the Council of the EU.   The resilience of air transport in the context of the health crisis, the reduction of the sector’s carbon footprint and the technological and social impact of these challenges were broadly debated during the two-day flagship event for aviation of the French Presidency. Speaking on behalf of all ...
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Airlines, pilots and environmental groups are teaming up for the first time to support a European Union plan for big increases in climate-friendly jet fuels. Major carriers including Air France-KLM, easyJet and Ryanair have joined forces with prominent non-governmental organisations such as Transport & Environment in a “Fuelling Flight Initiative” meant to help advance a key draft EU law. The legislative proposal from the European Commission would spur aviation's take-up of renewable energy, which so far has developed much more slowly in this industry than ...
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The International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations (IFALPA) and the European Cockpit Association (ECA) are highly concerned with the situation of heightened tensions in Eastern Europe. The situation appears comparable to that of summer 2014, which led to the tragic downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17. In hindsight, we know that in 2014, both the open and closed source intelligence information were far from accurate. The risk of misidentification was underestimated, and for these and other reasons, many risk assessments resulted in a false ...
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Two years ago – in June 2019 – I attended the joint EASA/FAA Conference in Cologne on behalf of ECA. My mission: find out how aircraft certification would evolve after the two fatal crashes and subsequent grounding of the B737MAX. I was only one of the few pilots present, attending along with aircraft manufacturers (Boeing, Airbus, Embraer, ATR...) or OEMs (Honeywell, Thales, Rockwell-Collins...) curious to see what new requirements they would face in the future. To be honest, I didn’t get much additional information on ...
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Just before the start of the pandemic the European Commission changed the requirements that the EU Member States must fulfill before a crew or airport identification card may be issued. There are two major changes that may have important consequences for crew. They will enter into force from the beginning of 2022. The first change is that the national authority issuing the identification card will now be required not only to check the corresponding criminal record but also to cover intelligence and any other relevant ...
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Since January 19, 2022, I have no idea what behavior the Radar Altimeters on board of the airplane I fly will show when flying in the USA. It could either fail, generate no data or even worse, create erroneous data which will be used by other aircraft systems. Pilots, just like myself, could be presented with the wrong flight altitude and unexpected behavior of other flight control systems. This all as a result of the rollout of 5G in the USA. A lot has already ...
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Attracting women to the piloting profession is challenging but retaining them is even more difficult, despite ongoing efforts. Stakeholders in the aviation industry must focus on inclusion and work to remove existing barriers that preclude women from seeking careers in aviation. Now is the time to encourage women pilots to participate in training, leadership, and committee roles and provide a diverse perspective and voice at the table. IFALPA published a new Position Paper Women in Aviation: Why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Matter, created by IFALPA's Female Pilot Working Group ...
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If you think the debate about ‘masks’ vs. ‘no masks’ during the pandemic was heated, gear up for the next episode: vaccine mandates. In the US and several other countries across the world, vaccine mandates are introduced as a way of boosting vaccination levels. Unsurprisingly, those ideas have reached Europe. Over the past weeks, we saw Swiss and Wizz Air, following the steps of Qantas and airlines in North America, announcing the introduction of mandatory vaccination for their crew.  Their line of argument is: Some ...
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“BM8LT Cleared for Landing rwy 15 !” On 22 February 2020 it was the last time that I heard this sentence.  This is an article published by the European Cockpit Association (ECA) on their website, providing some interesting views of what most of Europe's pilots have to endure in this pandemic. My Name is Marco and I was a First Officer flying on Boeing 737. I lost my job because of the COVID crisis. Today, I not only struggle to find a job in the ...
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KEY MESSAGES With the changing aircraft generations, and the evolution from early jets to the fly by wire technology, the automation on the flight deck has evolved over the years as well. It has however still not reached a point of maturity enabling operations with only one pilot in the cockpit without compromising flight safety. For this reason, ECA currently does not support reduced or single pilot operations in CAT during any phase of flight. Future further development and increased use of automation in commercial ...
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The ongoing COVID19 pandemic has dramatic consequences for the global airline industry, putting the entire industry and its workforce in what turned out to be the biggest crisis of the industry since World War II. For more than a year the daily life of thousands of pilots has changed dramatically. Frequent changes to entry and quarantine requirements for crews on duty create not only challenges for the airlines when it comes to planning flights in oder to guarantee global connectivity and supply of goods by ...
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Yesterday the transport ministers of Luxembourg, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal signed a joint declaration [LINK] calling for a "socially responsible" aviation in Brussels. The signatories call on the European Commission and the other EU Member States to put the social rights of employees first in the recovery of Europe’s aviation, which finds itself in an unprecedented crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The declaration highlights that the COVID-19 crisis exposes some of the deep changes of the aviation industry that ...
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Joint statement by the European Pilot Peer Support Initiative (EPPSI) and their founding organisations:  European Association for Aviation Psychology (EAAP), European Cockpit Association (ECA); European Society of Aerospace Medicine (ESAM) and Mayday Foundation Airlines, aviation organisations and their employees were not prepared for a pandemic, like COVID-19. Most European and international airlines have stopped flying or are focussing on cargo flights, medical and rescue operations or return flights. Most countries have issued strict quarantine and physical distancing measures. The COVID-19 crisis exposes all flight crews, their ...
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As a regional pilot for a national flag carrier you are often seen by the public as the image of the airline. Professional, competent and reliable. We fly our passengers to their vacation destinations; city breaks or business trips and reunite them with their family and friends. The last few weeks have been uncertain. When the outbreak in Europe was at its beginning there was not much information on what precautions we should take or what was expected of us. We have procedures in case ...
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While cargo airlines - in particular the national one - are well known in Luxembourg, outside of Luxembourg pilots flying cargo aeroplanes are often seen as “second-class” pilots by the broader public. Sometimes they are even asked if they are “not good enough” to fly passengers or “when would they be allowed to fly passengers”? The job of a cargo pilot certainly comes without all the glamour that accompanies airline pilots in the typical Hollywood movies. However, only known to few fellow aviators, life in ...
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Dear Mrs Vălean, Dear Mr Schmit, The ongoing, fast-evolving COVID-19 crisis with the extremely severe knock-on effects on the economy represents an unprecedented challenge for our European societies. It is our collective responsibility, with the European institutions and national authorities at the forefront, to step up to this challenge. High-performing air mobility is one of the foundations of any strong and prosperous economy. What matters today is therefore to preserve a functioning European air transport industry, as essential long-term public infrastructure, and as a significant ...
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Unfortunately, this is not going to be a neat editorial with a thoughtful message, or a well-structured narrative and a satisfying ending. As I write this, the World Health Organisation has just declared the Coronavirus outbreak and spread of Covid-19 a pandemic, and all of our plans, expectations, and usual assumptions are being tossed in the bin. It is foremost a public health emergency, but the effect of the virus, and the measures needed to try and mitigate its spread, are an economic emergency too ...
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An attentive EU-policy connoisseur knows that the revision of EU Air Services Regulation 1008/2008 is coming soon. This major piece of legislation sets the fundaments of how the aviation business works in Europe. It covers anything from licensing, leasing, to airline Ownership & Control rules. And unsurprisingly, it is unfit for purpose (read this if you want to know why).  At the 13th Air Forum in Florence, industry stakeholders discussed how to make it ‘fit’. 1008/2008 regulates with the default assumption that airlines offer air ...
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By the time you are reading this article, 80% of people would have failed to achieve their 2020 New Year’s Resolutions. Millions of people worldwide pledge at the beginning of each year to introduce sweeping changes, mostly aiming at a better & healthier lifestyle, only to drop their ambitious plan several weeks later.  Revamping pilot training has become a somewhat similar tradition as the New Year’s Resolutions. Year on year, the industry pledges to improve training in an effort to create ‘flight-deck ready’ pilots. This ...
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Europe is showing a misplaced pride in the new wave of liberalisation in air transport. The ongoing and recently concluded air transport agreements with 3rd countries still carry a strong liberal footprint but have made only a modest attempt at protecting fair competition and EU social standards. If Europe is serious about maintaining high social standards and fair competition in aviation, it should quickly get its act together. When in 2015 the European Commission presented its Aviation Strategy, it became clear that negotiating Air Transport ...
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The aviation sector is particularly exposed to non-compliance with applicable law and misapplication of EU legislation in general. The reason identified by many is the transnational nature of the airlines’ operations and, consequently, the highly mobile character of the pilots/aircrew jobs that makes it difficult to determine the law applicable to employees as well as the State(s) with the regulatory oversight responsibility (incl. in the employment and taxation domains). Executive Summary  This paper concerns applicable legislation both from a social security (Regulation 883/2004) and an ...
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Bogus self-employment is preventing the good functioning of the European aviation market and impacting negatively the working conditions of aircrew. This paper demonstrates that self-employment in commercial air transportation is unlikely to exist. Executive summary A commercial airline pilot cannot exercise his/her profession without the continuous supervision and monitoring by the operator, as required by EASA Regulations. The pilot does not have control over cost and pricing, neither owns the aircraft she/he flies or decides (how), when and where to fly. Such regulatory and organisational ...
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From its inception, Boeing’s 737 Max was designed to save airlines the expense of training pilots on flight simulators. Simulator training costs money, which few in the aviation industry are keen on spending. “No additional simulator training” became a key – and successful – selling point for the MAX, which is perhaps symptomatic of the entire aviation industry’s race to the bottom and intense commercial pressure in all parts of the aviation chain. The latest batch of internal Boeing messages reveal the extent to which ...
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A bright sunny day, but a persistent stratiform cloud blocks the view of the runway when approaching the minimums. Or even worse, more than sufficient visibility, but a thick cloud layer extends below CAT 1 minimums and Low Visibility Operations (LVO) are not (yet) activated… A go-around seems imminent while the weather forecast and ATIS information may not have caused you to expect this course of action.  This is why we put together brief guidance with mitigating measures that could help crews operating into any airport, ...
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Follow this link to read the first edition of ECA's News in Brief ...
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Europe’s pilots are shocked and deeply saddened by the shooting down of Ukrainian Airlines flight PS752 in Iran and the killing of all on board. This comes only a few years after the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17), in 2014. It is tragic proof that some lessons from MH17 on flying into or over conflict zones have not been learnt, and that Europe has no effective system in place to reduce those risks. Having seen major airlines continue flying to Tehran in the ...
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Adina-Ioana Vălean – This is the name aviation professionals in Europe will hear very often in the next 5 years. As the new EU Commissioner in charge of transport Ms Vălean will be the driving force of safe, efficient, sustainable and socially-responsible transport in Europe. Behind those terms is an ambitious agenda, already outlined by the new Commissioner – who comes from Romania – at the EU Parliament hearing earlier this year ...
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The time has come: Early November ICAO launched real-time worldwide space weather update service. Three Space Weather Centers (SWXC) will generate and share space weather advisories using the existing channels, similar to SIGMET. The advisories can thereby go directly to aircraft operators and flight crew throughout the flight as standard meteorological information.  The advisories are providing the most up to date information possible on any solar events, which could potentially impact aircraft systems or passenger health ...
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Members of Europe’s leading aviation associations have today published a joint paper setting out the principles to support the safe integration into European airspace of unmanned aircraft, or ‘drones’. This is one of the most critical issues facing the aviation industry today. Drones will revolutionise many aspects of everyday life, from the way people travel, to agriculture, policing, mapping, deliveries, maintenance, asset management and construction. However, their proliferation also raises questions about how to handle their integration without compromising safety or security or disrupting current ...
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Despite the occasional outcry about the “greedy” pilots on strike, all crew and many passengers do understand that negotiations with the employers can result in a deadlock which can at times lead to a strike. The current industrial disputes in numerous airlines across Europe have proven to be a pressure test for airline managers and their true colours. Negotiating terms and conditions between pilot unions and airlines is always a challenge. It often creates a period with high tensions between the two parties that could ...
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Europe’s Single Aviation Market has been instrumental in creating new market opportunities, stimulating growth and boosting connectivity. Airlines and their employees have been the driving forces behind this success story, allowing the traveling public wider choice, better prices and quality service. At the same time, the Single Market focused on economic freedoms and opportunities, while social aspects & regulations remained mainly national. This means they are subject to significant differences between the legal systems of EU Member States and subject to uneven control and enforcement ...
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The safe and efficient co-existence of manned and unmanned aircraft in the airspace is one of the major challenges in aviation for the next decades. The rapid growth in Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), civil and military, has increased the demand for access to non-segregated airspace. It is recognised that the use of small UAS at lower altitudes is now a driving force of economic development. This revolution, based on a ‘disruptive’ technology, has already created new services in many fields of activity and new possibilities ...
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Imagine that Guinness, the Irish maker of the nutritious, smooth and dark nectar, wanted to sell some more of the beloved beer. Seeing an opportunity, it decides that Germany, with its tradition of clean, crisp Pilsner would benefit from a broadening of the taste buds. This could be an ideal market in which to offer an alternative to the usual German drink of choice, and indeed with superior Teutonic brewing knowhow, plentiful clean mountain water, reduced transport costs, and to meet the expected demand, the ...
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A successful rescue mission in fierce weather that captivated the world on 23 March 2019. This is the story of the Viking Sky: a cruise ship with 1373 people on board which lost power off the coast of Norway. The strong winds and high waves made the rescue operation even more dramatic. A second ship in the vicinity running into trouble, added to the already highly challenging situation.  The world watched with distress the images that emerged from the cruise ship and followed on (social) ...
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If a pilot is looking for a job and goes online to check the vacancies, it comes as no surprise that broker agencies dominate the job market. In the past decade brokers – in all shapes and sizes – have filled a void created by airlines who were not able or willing to offer permanent or stable jobs.  Instead, brokers started offering screening and recruitment, training programmes, Pay-to-Fly schemes and in some cases – actual job opportunities. But the rise of temporary work agencies has ...
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Regulators from across the globe are meeting today in Texas (USA), to discuss a possible return to service of the grounded Boeing 737 MAX. The FAA is currently reviewing Boeing’s proposed ‘software fix’ and is already looking ahead at taking the plane back to the sky. For European pilots, having closely followed the developments and revelations in the past months, it is deeply disturbing that both the FAA and Boeing are considering a return to service, but failing to discuss the many challenging questions prompted ...
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Have you ever checked your watch halfway through a long day at work, wishing it was over, turned to your co-worker, and with a smile discovered they had nodded off at their desk? Rather a lot of Europe’s pilots have too, though probably without the smile. In February 2016, after over a decade of false starts and wrangling, pilots and cabin crew throughout Europe finally became subject to a single harmonised set of rules to limit the way in which flights can be scheduled and ...
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A new revision of the EU regulation on pilots’ background checks introduces an “intelligence pillar” as of 31 Dec 2020. The new requirement to include and analyse intelligence information will become a mandatory element of the thorough background checks which pilots undergo every 5 year. Such checks are vital for aviation security and assess pilots’ trustworthiness. Currently, authorities look at education, employment and criminal records. But the revision of the Regulation adds intelligence background information as a mandatory requirement for a successful background check.  This ...
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The industry is ripe for a new approach to recruiting & assessing pilots The way we screen and recruit pilot cadets in Europe is an issue that lately has been raising eyebrows amongst industry experts. Today, the bulk of training schools screen their future clients – the cadets – themselves. The industry has turned a blind eye to this conflict of interest for years as it suited almost everyone.  Regrettably, to many Approved Training Organisations (ATOs), a pilot candidate equals profit. Hence – to make a ...
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