IFALPA president highlights importance of 'collective wisdom'

INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF AIR LINE PILOTS’ (IFALPA) PRESIDENT, CAPTAIN RON ABEL, SPOKE PASSIONATELY ABOUT THE DIVERSITY AS WELL AS THE STRENGTH OF THE ‘COLLECTIVE WISDOM’ OF THE ORGANISATION AT THE 73RD IFALPA CONFERENCE RECENTLY HELD IN LUXEMBOURG. FROM THE PODIUM AT THE IFALPA CONFERENCE, IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO FEEL PROFOUNDLY IMPRESSED BY THE CALIBRE OF AVIATION EXPERTS AND TECHNICAL SPECIALISTS WHO HAD GATHERED IN THE CAUSE OF AVIATION SAFETY AND SUPPORT FOR THE WORLD’S AIRLINE PILOTS.

Every year our member associations join in the vigorous debate on policy and technical solutions to adopt at the conference.

It is clear the reason for our success is the diversity of experience our member associations bring.

Our 100,000-strong membership reflects many cultures, sizes and types of operations, political frameworks, economic environments, and competitive pressures. This diversity allows us to understand and take on issues from all angles – as we advance our members’ goals in safety, security, and human performance.

An example of this is when both the UK and US governments banned personal electronic devices (PEDs) on certain airlines and destinations last year. Our members immediately went into action to find an approach to address the PED security issue concerns, by placing devices in cargo holds, resulting in the lifting of the ban.

IFALPA members have also helped ensure that International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) policy now contains stronger safeguards to protect safety information, and restrictions on the use of cockpit voice recordings outside Annex 13 accident investigation.

IFALPA pilots are active on issues such as unruly passengers and remotely piloted aircraft systems.

The sharing of knowledge and collaboration between member states is integral to IFALPA working as a functioning body.

To encourage information sharing the IFALPA governing body unanimously approved allowing an IFALPA regional realignment that replaces the previous structure of CAR/SAM (Caribbean/South America) and NAM (North America) with a streamlined organisation of CAR/NAM (Caribbean/ North America) and SAM (South America) that reflects the commonalities in geography and airspace.

Our members share their knowledge at Conference, in the cockpit and at countless industry events each year.

This collective wisdom is our federation’s strength and our opportunity.

*abridged excerpt from the IFALPA Interpilot magazine, Issue 2 – 2018.