Union Says The Captain's Actions Were 'Immature'

The friction between pilots of the recently-merged American Airlines and US Airways seeped into a cockpit recently, when a US Airways captain refused to allow three American pilots to ride in his airplane's jumpseat as is a common practice.

Pilots will normally let other pilots ride in the cockpit jumpseat as a professional courtesy, particularly in an era where pilots may have to commute long distances to their jobs. The unnamed US Airways captain refused such privileges to pilots from American three times, according to a report appearing in The Street.

In a letter sent from US Airways in Charlotte, NC, the airline's pilot union said that the pilot in question, whom they characterized in the letter as "rouge", hung up on union officials twice when contacted. "This captain's immature actions have put our jumpseat privileges with American Airlines in jeopardy," they wrote. "We knew going into this merger that there would be disagreements regarding seniority," the letter continued. "There is a process to handle this and it will work out in the end. There are three places that we should never let politics interfere: safety, training and the jumpseat."

FMI: www.alpa.org