DAWN HANDFORTH

March was a harrowing month for New Zealanders with the Christchurch tragedy leading to our country’s general security and safety risk being deemed ‘high’ for the very first time. This had expected knock-on effects for airport and aircraft security. Just as there is proposed tightening of firearms laws, we can also expect to hear soon if airport security legislation will also be reviewed, even just as a temporary precaution.

In the meantime, NZALPA extends our sympathy and thoughts to aviation colleagues, including student members in New Zealand’s training schools, who have been directly or indirectly affected by these terrible events. 

Earlier last month there was the second fatal accident of a 737 Max 8 in just six months, when Ethiopia Airlines Flight 302 crashed to the ground soon after take-off, killing all 157 passengers and crew on board. As NZALPA has said in a number of media interviews, it’s important that there is a full investigation and that conclusions are verified before we can be confident about the cause of this and the earlier Indonesian Lion Air disaster. 

While it has led to logistical complications for many airlines, including New Zealanders who fly with Fiji Airlines, and has wiped billions off Boeing’s market value, NZALPA supports the need to ground these aircraft for thorough testing, particularly of the automated software. 

On a more positive note, it’s been encouraging to welcome more pilots to NZALPA, as they recognise the benefits of membership and joining our organisation.

This is a firm vote of confidence in NZALPA’s effectiveness, across all our activities and we’ll be covering more of these in the NZALPA Annual Report, which will be available just before our 2019 Annual Conference. 

We are proud of our strong industry voice, which we use to improve safety for our members and the travelling public, to pursue excellence and technical standards and, of course, to further strengthen our negotiating position and uphold our members’ employment terms and conditions. To see people voting with their feet and joining because of our effectiveness is very encouraging. 

Significantly, a large part of our membership growth is coming from General Aviation (GA), which is particularly pleasing given this is an area where we have been traditionally underrepresented, despite the number of employment and safety issues faced in this sector. During January and February this year 44% of new members came from the GA sector, and as I write this column, the March figures look as though they are following a similar trend. 

We welcome you all and look forward to supporting you in your aviation career. 

The graph below shows our current distribution of members. 

The GA membership growth is acknowledgement of the hard work we have done for our members in this sector. Over the last year highlights of our work include: 

• representing Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) members with workplace issues 
• providing expertise on fatigue risk management systems (FRMS) in the HEMS sector and in the broader part 135 sector (operations involving helicopters and small aeroplanes) 
• contributing to the CAA Rule Part 135 SRP (Safety Risk Profile) project 
• completing and publicly releasing “Pilot Career Progression in New Zealand” - the joint study conducted by NZALPA and Massey University School of Aviation
• surveying our GA members to learn more about their working conditions, and to help us in our advocacy work with the industry, government and other stakeholders; and 
• achieving a ground-breaking settlement for our L3 CTS Airline Academy members in Hamilton. 

This last achievement is very significant. The L3 members worked hard to reach their first collective agreement and a settlement that they can rightly be proud of. The terms and conditions they achieved will raise the bar significantly for the flight training industry across New Zealand. 

This included achieving enhanced terms and conditions such as significant pay rises of up to 26%, superannuation of 8%, increased annual leave, 60 days’ sick leave, leave bank provisions as well as company-provided insurances, and an incentive bonus scheme. 

At a time when the pilot supply issue means Part 141 training organisations (certified organisations conducting aviation training and assessments) are being squeezed by the airlines, we expect this settlement to help attract and retain sorely needed flight trainers in the industry. Well done to the team! 

Finally, NZALPA has also been approached by the CAA to be involved in their proposed Helicopter Sector Safety Performance Improvement Strategy - to assist in the development of the strategy, provide leadership in this regard, and to establish and contribute to a task force that will operationalise the strategy, along with other stakeholders. 

Take care.