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.

FMI: www.aa.com