Ducks in False Plumage

In a new filing regarding SkyWest’s ongoing attempts to artfully obviate the aviation safety rules by which U.S. airline passenger fatalities have been reduced by 99.8-percent, the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA) called upon the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to close the Part 135 loophole currently being exploited by JSX.

JSX sells its flights as public air charters under 14 CFR Part 380. The flights themselves are operated, however, by JSX subsidiary Delux Public Charter (as JSX Air) under Part 135.

JSX operates Embraer ERJ-135 and ERJ-145 aircraft, each retrofitted with interiors featuring thirty seats, in-row power, and an absence of overhead bins.

To the subject of SkyWest’s and JSX’s alleged regulatory legerdemain, ALPA set forth: “Federal aviation and DOT regulations facilitate competition by defining the playing field and how competitors are permitted to compete. Loopholes, and abuse of loopholes, undermine those rules. … The United States has the safest air system in the world precisely because carriers compete under Part 121 scheduled service.”

ALPA’s filing was made in response to JSX’s convention of operating its flights under 14 CFR Part 135—a regulatory construct devised for the governance and oversight of non-scheduled aircraft charter concerns. Though vastly more restrictive than Part 91, Part 135 affords certificate holders degrees of latitude prohibited by Part 121—that part of the Federal Aviation Regulations under which scheduled airlines (e.g., American, United, Delta, Southwest, Alaska, etc.) operate.

ALPA contends JSX’s security protocols constitute a glaring loophole requiring immediate and comprehensive closure.

Notwithstanding JSX’s contention that it is a purveyor of charter flights, the company, in 2022, applied to operate 110,305 scheduled departures with its 37-aircraft fleet—a number of aircraft operations considerably greater than those undertaken over the same time-period by comparably-sized Piedmont Airlines, a Part 121 regional air-carrier.

ALPA’s filing continued: “JSX simply is wrong. If it walks, talks, and quacks like a duck, it is a duck; since JSX does in fact provide scheduled service, it should be deemed to do so, regardless of the fictious regulatory disguise that it dons.”

In 2022, SkyWest prevailed upon the DOT to substitute the airline’s Essential Air Service flying—operated at the highest level of safety—with a new alter-ego “charter” subsidiary operating, essentially, a scheduled operation, though at a lesser level of safety. Under current Part 135 regulations, first officers are not required to meet the qualification and training standards promulgated by Congress in the Airline Safety and FAA Extension Act of 2010—a sound piece of legislation long criticized and resolutely opposed by regional airlines seeking swell their respective pilot ranks with low-time fliers willing to work for sub-scale pay.

While conceding that Part 135 operators fill a vital niche in the U.S.’s national air-transport scheme, ALPA called the DOT’s attention to the numerous significant aviation safety improvements occasioned by the Airline Safety and FAA Extension Act of 2010—to include heightened pilot qualification and experience requirements, specialized pilot training in stall recognition and recovery, and supplemental pilot training addressing flight in adverse weather conditions. ALPA asserted the increased pilot-certification requirements codified by Congress have rendered U.S. skies the safest in the world.

FMI: www.alpa.org