Regulatory Body Extorts Turkish Pilots

The Turkish civil aviation authority seems to be maneuvering to hold the country’s pilots hostage. 

Against the backdrop of the looming summer tourism season, the Turkish Directorate General of Civil Aviation has decreed that Turkish pilots seeking to work for foreign airlines must obtain letters of consent from their previous employers. The agency has declared that it will hold the application verifications of pilots who resign without first obtaining such letters for six-months. 

The Turkish Directorate General of Civil Aviation has framed its misdeeds in rationale—citing long airport queues and domestic flight delays as justification for its actions.

Hava-Is—a Turkish labor union—has called the new regulatory measure an intervention to pilots' freedom of labour and individual rights. The union asserts that Turkey’s 10,525 registered, professional pilots are aggressively sought after by air carriers across the Middle East. 

Hava-Is’s assertion is substantiated by recent German measures to fast-track work permits and visas for several thousand foreign pilots and airport workers—mainly from Turkey—to help facilitate brisk summer travel. 

The Turkish Directorate General of Civil Aviation was formed in 1954. The organization officiates the registration of civil aircraft and unmanned air vehicles, and conducts the investigations of aviation accidents within Turkish airspace. 

FMI: https://web.shgm.gov.tr