International Airlines

International carriers such as Qatar, Emirates and Etihad Airlines are dominating the international market. U.S airlines are claiming that they have an unfair advantage by receiving government subsidies. According to Delta Airlines Etihad, and Qatar Airways have received "42 billion dollars in subsidies from their home governments" (Weisman 2015). They also claim that they are using the subsidies to eliminate competition by lowering prices, and offering services such as showers, beds and full service bars at the company's expense. That's the reason why the CEO’s of the American carriers are pushing for American action against the Gulf carriers because they believe that they are receiving illegal subsidies from their respective governments, and violates the open sky agreement which promotes trade jobs and economic growth (Oatis 2015). 

According to Etihad Airways, American, United and Delta Airlines have "received a combined total of 71.48 billion in government benefits over the last 15 years" (Fricke 2015). It's kind of hard to call for government action when you are doing the same thing that you are complaining about. While American carriers are complaining about 42 billion dollars in government subsidies given to Emirates and Qatar they have forgotten about the american aviation industry receiving "155 billion in direct spending from 1918 to 1998" (Shaal 2015). That is not including any government subsidies given in the last 17 years, or bailouts and bankruptcy proceedings. As you see there are always two sides to a story, I personally think that both American and Middle Eastern Airlines are guilty in receiving government subsidies.

U.S Airlines such as Delta and United are complaining about foreign airlines such as Emirates benefiting from below market interest rates that are unavailable to them from the governments export credit agency. Even though it may sound unfair to american airlines, you  must keep in mind that international airlines are using that money to buy Boeing aircraft instead of Airbus.  Boeing officials believe that the Export-Import bank allows them to sell hundreds of airplanes and compete with the European market, and with out it they will lose billions of dollars in revenue. Boeing also believes without the low interest rates airlines such as Emirates would deal with European credit agencies to purchase jets from Airbus ( Weisman 2015).

No i don't believe that the global playing field of long haul careers is fair. Thats because airlines don't play fair, and that applies to all airlines not just the gulf carriers. Writing this blog I discovered that American Airlines have been receiving subsidies since 1918, and once they started feeling the heat they wanted to call foul. I think its a joke that people mention the open sky agreement when we all know that airlines don't play by the rules, they never did and never will, it's just the nature of the business.  

Oatis, J. (Ed.). (2015, September 17). U.S. airline CEOs to meet with Kerry on Gulf carriers. Retrieved September 27, 2015. from http://www.businessinsider.com/r-us-airline-ceos-to-meet-with-kerry-on-gulf-carriers-2015-9

Fricke, P. (2015, May 15). Gulf Airline Blasts US For Aviation Subsidies. Retrieved October 26, 2015, from http://dailycaller.com/2015/05/15/gulf-airline-blasts-us-for-aviation-subsidies/

Schaal, D. "WikiLeaks Disclosure Shows U.S. Airlines Received Billions in Subsidies." Skift. 9 Apr. 2015. Web. 27 Oct. 2015, http://skift.com/2015/04/09/wikileaks-disclosure-shows-u-s-airlines-received-billions-in-subsidies/

 Weisman, J. "Boeing and Delta Spend Millions in Fight Over Export-Import Bank’s Existence." The New York Times. The New York Times, 6 Apr. 2015. Web. 27 Oct. 2015,  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/07/business/boeing-delta-air-lines-export-import-bank.html?_r=0

Flying Cargo

The new regulations regarding pilot fatigue and mandatory rest periods have had a huge impact on the airline industry. After the Colgan accident the FAA finally addressed the growing problem of pilot fatigue and minimal rest periods. The FAA calls for mandatory rest periods between flight duty periods so that flight crews are not operating while they are fatigued. The FAA recognizes the fact that excessive fatigue greatly increases the chance of pilot error, so they passed the new regulations with a goal of  limiting the likely hood of that occurring. The new regulations includes:

• Limiting or restricting the maximum Flight Duty Period (FDP), 
• Limits the FDP to 8 or 9 hours depending on the time of day.
• 10 hour rest period between duty period.
• Flight crews must notify the air carrier if he/she is not fit for duty. 
• Schedules must be 95%consistent with the FDP.
• Part 121 carriers are required to provide annual fatigue related education and training. 

Prior to the new regulations, airlines were required to give a minimum of 8 hour rest period between flight duty.
FAA excluded all cargo operations from the regulation because their "compliance cost significantly exceed the quantifiable social benefit" (FAA). Other than the excessive cost of implementing the new rules, I think cargo companies are not included in the new regulations simply because the only people on the plane is the flight crew. Cargo pilots don't have to worry about the safety of passengers their only concern is to bring the plane back in one piece.

I believe that cargo companies should be included in the new rules, simply because they were created to reduce the amount of accidents due to fatigue and inadequate rest. Considering that  "more than half of cargo operations are conducted at night" (Lacagnina). Flight crews experience the most fatigue, due to the fact that "daytime sleep is inferior to night time sleep" (Lacagnina).

If cargo companies were included in the new regulations, it wouldn't of changed a thing for me. I plan on flying for one of the gulf carriers after graduation. For most pilots I think that they would of probably considered flying for a cargo company instead of a regional airline. The conditions are rough for first year cargo pilots, so i understand why new pilots prefer the airlines.


Trejos, N. (2014, January 3). New pilot fatigue rules go into effect this weekend. Retrieved October 17, 2015, from http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinthesky/2014/01/03/pilot-fatigue-mandatory-rest-new-faa-rules/4304417/

FAA. (n.d.). Flight Crew Duty and Rest Requirement. Retrieved October 19, 2015, from https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/rulemaking/recently_published/media/2120-AJ58-FinalRule.pdf

Lacagnina, M. (n.d.). Balancing Cargo Safety. Retrieved October 19, 2015, from http://www.flightsafety.org/asw/nov06/asw_nov06_p28-33.pdf?dl=1

Flying Cheap

The regional airline industry is facing a serious pilot shortage and its only going to get worse. There are many causes for the shortage of qualified pilots, one of the main reasons is the sky rocketing cost of flight training. Another factor is the wave of retirements that U.S airlines are currently facing "Nearly 18,000 mainline pilots are expected to retire between 2013 and 2022" (Lavine 2015). Another contributing factor that drives many potential pilots away is the pay or lack of in the regional airlines. Other than retirements and the need to fill vacancies, air travel is in high demand.

New regulations have impacted regional airlines in a big way, with the increased flight requirement of 1,500 hours to become a first officer. Prior to the Colgan accident the legal requirement to be a first officer was a commercial  rating and a current medical. The new regulation increased the required time from 250 hours to 1,500 hours, and that is driving many students away. As with every problem there are solutions which can solve the problem or at least limit the negative effects of it. In order to fix this problem two things must happen, lower the 1,000 hour requirement for university students, and increase the pay of first year pilots. Those two things will help regional airlines hire and keep pilots with in their company. Another thing that regional airlines should be doing is sponsoring students pilots and assisting them with the cost for flight training. This will ensure more students are enrolling in flight schools and universities. And upon graduation students are guaranteed a first officer position with that airline. International airlines such as Qatar, Lufthansa and many others utilizes the cadet program, in which the company pays for the students training and in return they work with the company for x amount of years.

There are various unions other than ALPA that represents the aviation industry. A few of the unions  I found is the National Air Traffic Controller Association (NATCA) which consists of over 20,000 controllers, engineers and other professionals. Also the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) is the world largest flight attendant labor union containing over 60,000 members from 19 different airlines.

In my opinion professionalism means to carry yourself in a professional matter when you are on duty. To take your job seriously and put in the extra time and effort to make sure everything is up to par in terms of quality and safety. After watching flying cheap it was clear to me that Colgan Air didn't believe in professionalism. Colgan's management did an awful job of maintaining a professional environment, there were many instances in the video that displayed that, one of the most shocking was when a flight was over the allowed weight they altered the weight and balance to make it a legal flight. Pilots also lacked professionalism in this documentary, it was clearly demonstrated in the buffalo accident. On approach the flight crew had a meaningless discussion instead of focusing on the approach itself. If the flight crew maintained a sterile cockpit and monitored the flight instruments they could of prevented that tragic accident from occurring by maintaining their airspeed and situational awareness.

First year pay is a huge factor when it comes to their lack of professionalism. After watching the documentary it seemed like the majority of first year pilots' were miserable and hated their jobs because they were over worked and underpaid. As with any job, if your employees are unhappy they will not put in the time or effort to do the job right or on time, which is unacceptable in the aviation industry. I plan on maintaining and expanding my level of professionalism once I become employed by doing the right thing and making the best decisions and putting time and effort to ensure that i am doing things safely and in a timely matter. Most importantly I plan on taking every flight seriously and avoiding unnecessary conversation in the cockpit so that I am not distracting myself or my co pilot.

Lavine, A. (2015). Why the U.S. Airline Pilot Shortage Is So Hard to Solve -- The Motley Fool. Retrieved October 12, 2015, from http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/08/10/why-the-us-airline-pilot-shortage-is-so-hard-to-so.aspx

The Coming U.S. Pilot Shortage Is Real. (2015, February 16). Retrieved October 12, 2015, from http://aviationweek.com/commercial-aviation/coming-us-pilot-shortage-realNational

Air Traffic Controllers Association - Homepage. (n.d.). Retrieved October 12, 2015, from http://www.natca.org

About AFA. (n.d.). Retrieved October 12, 2015, from http://www.afacwa.org/about_afa

Unmanned Aircraft Systems

Before writing this blog, I actually didn't know what UAS stood for and soon after I began researching I found out that it was short for Unmanned Aircraft Systems. The difference between UAS and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)  is that a UAV only consists of the vehicle  itself. The switch from vehicles to systems is explained by this quote "in order to encompass the entirety of the vehicle that flies, the ground-based controller, and the communications connection that connects the two" (Stanly 2013)

Now that we understand the difference between a UAV and a UAS lets talk about their usage. As you  know their is a lot of excitement building around drones and their increased role in our society.  UAS are being operated world wide and are being used to assist in many ways. listed Below are some of the primary usage of UAS.

Military use- The Military mainly uses drones for search and destroy operations, instead of sending manned aircraft into battle we can send a drone to eliminate enemy targets without putting our own men/women at risk. (Epatko 2013)

Law Enforcement- Law enforcement agencies primary use drones for search and rescue operations, and surveillance. (Ferner 2013)

Commercial use- Commercial use of drone primarily consists of aerial surveillance, company's use them to monitor live stock, home security and wildfire mapping. 

Conservation- Drones are being used to monitor endangered animals such as rhinos and lions, for example South African National Parks utilizes drones in their conservation efforts.

Animal rights- Apparently activists use drones to monitor illegal activities that are endangering animals, like poaching. For example anti whaling activists are using drones to monitor whaling ships in the antarctic. (lallanilla 2013)

Survey and archeology- The use of drones for oil, gas and mineral exploration is fairly new. More commonly drones are used to monitor oil and gas pipelines. Archeologist utilizes drones to speed up surveys and help produce 3-D maps instead of flat maps.

Disaster Relief- Drones have been used to assist in locating injured civilians, they also are used gathering data to determine the scale of destruction.

Crop Dusting- Japanese farmers have been using drones to dust their crops since 1987.

Stanley, J. (2013, May 20). "Drones" vs "UAVs" -- What's Behind A Name? Retrieved October 3, 2015, from https://www.aclu.org/blog/drones-vs-uavs-whats-behind-name

Lallanilla, B. (2013, March 23). 9 Totally Cool Uses for Drones. Retrieved October 5, 2015, from http://www.livescience.com/28137-cool-uses-for-drones.html

Ferner, M. (2013, June 6). Mesa County, Colo. A National Leader In Domestic Drone Use. Retrieved October 5, 2015, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/06/mesa-county-colo-a-nation_n_3399876.html

Epatko, L. (2013, April 18). How Are Drones Used in the U.S.? Retrieved October 5, 2015, from http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/how-are-drones-used-in-us/