After 860 days in negotiations, the Air Transport International (ATI) pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA), today once again called on management to come to the table with reasonable, timely solutions to ensure the airline’s competitiveness in the current aviation environment.
“For the last seven years, the pilots of ATI have delivered outstanding reliability, bringing record revenue and growth to our parent company, Air Transport Services Group, Inc (NYSE: ATSG). ATI pilots continuously provide superior service to our primary customers—Amazon Air and the Department of Defense—yet management fails to acknowledge or support those efforts,” said Capt. Mike Sterling, chair of the ATI unit of ALPA.
In negotiations this week, the Company finally delivered a long-awaited economic proposal, the first since negotiations opened in June 2020. Unfortunately, the proposal fell well short of the industry standard for pilot compensation and does little to ensure that ATI can compete for and retain qualified, professional pilots.
“It’s not surprising that ATI is having trouble attracting and retaining pilots. Poor crew planning, poor treatment of pilots, poor working conditions, an outdated contract, and an inability to support flight operations due to overworked and underpaid ATI staff across the board have all contributed to a significant number of pilots leaving. The Company has been unable to resolve the deteriorating conditions because they continually fail to recognize that a ‘next level’ contract is the only solution. ALPA remains committed to achieving a contract that will attract and retain pilots and restore our ability to provide superior service to ATI’s customers,” added Sterling.
Founded in 1931, ALPA is the world’s largest pilot union, representing more than 65,000 pilots at 40 airlines in the United States and Canada. Visit the ALPA website at alpa.org or follow us on Twitter @ALPAPilots and @ALPACanada.
