DePete Calls Claims of Imminent Pilot Shortages False Rhetoric

In a letter to FAA Administrator Billy Nolen, Airline Pilots Association president, Joseph G. DePete (pictured), excoriated Republic Airlines’s proposal to lower the the required pilot minimums for its R-ATP program from 1,500 hours to 750.

Republic’s R-ATP program is a proposed, closed-loop system that the airline would operate within its subsidiary, LIFT Academy training program. Republic claims the benefit of the closed-loop system is that pilots selected to participate are trained entirely in house, in keeping with Part 141 training standards specific to ATP requirements.

The requested exemption would allow selected civilian pilots who complete the R-ATP program to apply for an airline transport pilot certificate concurrently with a multiengine airplane type rating with a minimum of 750 hours of total flight time. Republic cites concerns over future pilot shortage as rationale for the proposal.

DePete refutes Republic’s claims, stating that talk of looming pilot shortages is false rhetoric, and an attempt to both distract and deceive the flying public, and lay the groundwork for weakening Congress’s clear intent when it strengthened First Officer qualification and training requirements in 2010. DePete goes on to say,  “Any assertion about a lack of available pilots is simply not based on fact.” DePete’s assertions are substantiated by a joint, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics/Federal Aviation Administration report that posits there are more than enough certified pilots to meet current demand.

In his letter, DePete, who attests that over the past ten years, the United States has produced more than enough pilots to meet airline hiring demand, accuses Republic Airways of attempting to circumvent the clear intent of the law, and suggests the airline’s proposal is “a solution in search of a problem.”

FMI: www.alpa.org/news-and-events/news-room/2021-12-17-pilot-supply-senate-commerce-hearing