AAL Pilots Can Now Wear Leather Jackets
Seeing that few fashion
trends remain strong like leather, American Airlines will allow its
pilots to sport leather bomber jackets in the cockpit. The black
jackets, which will be optional, are seen as a way to honor the
traditions of pilots, increase their cool factor with customers
and, the airline hopes, cheer up employees in the wake of pay cuts
and corporate instability.
"We think that the finest aviators in the world deserve the
finest uniform accessories," wrote Mark Hettermann, American's vice
president of flight, in a letter to the airline's pilots. Soon
after sending the note, the Fort Worth-based carrier was inundated
with questions about the uniform change. Flight administration
officials asked pilots to be patient in an e-mail message
Monday.
"We do not yet have ordering information. Please do not call
your crew base office ... as they don't have any info either," the
message said.
The airline isn't yet able to say how much the jackets will
cost, which company will make them or when passengers will start
seeing pilots wearing them.
American has been borrowing from its traditions in several
decisions lately. For instance, the company stepped up to sponsor
events honoring the Wright Brothers' first flight and Vietnam-era
aircraft. And then there was the recent decision to keep the caps
that pilots wear.
"I basically endorsed the hat. It's a request to honor the
tradition," said Capt. Hettermann.
Now, the airline is
going even more traditional with the black leather jacket. Leather
dates back to the early days of flight when pilots needed
protection in open cockpits. In World War I, heroic pilots had a
rather shaky success rate, but they looked dashing in their leather
trench coats, goggles and scarves. Later, serious pilots such as
Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart, celebrities of their day,
were often pictured wearing leather jackets.
In the 1980s, the Air Force and Navy decided to take their
tradition back, hoping that the leather jackets would increase
morale and retain pilots, who were ditching the military in droves
for better pay in the commercial airlines. But now, it's the
airlines themselves that are adopting the leather jacket for their
crews.
"The pilots absolutely love them," said Greg Crum, vice
president of flight operations for Dallas-based Southwest Airlines
Co. Southwest added the leather bomber jacket as part of the pilot
uniform about a decade ago. "We made them an optional uniform
accessory." Pilots at FedEx Corp., Alaska Airlines and some
commuters also have adopted leather jackets as part of their
pilots' wardrobe.
Gregg Overman,
spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, said that some of the
pilots at American really like the alternative. As with the blue
wool uniforms that American pilots now wear, they'll have to pay
for them out of their own pockets. Not all of them though. Several
have been complaining on pilot chat rooms about the decision. Their
objection is that they took a 23 percent pay cut and the company is
talking about their outfits.
Meanwhile, other airlines are also looking at uniforms as they
try to restructure. For instance, cash-strapped Delta Air Lines
Inc. has hired a designer to sex up the uniforms for its flight
attendants.