The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), which is the world's largest pilots union, has sent a letter directly to Pete Buttigieg, the Secretary of Transportation, and the rest of the United States Department of Transportation. The letter highlights the union's opposition to SkyWest's application for becoming a commuter air carrier authority. The airline has proposed a move from Federal Air Regulation (FAR) Part 121 to FAR Part 135.
Switching Federal Air Regulations
SkyWest formally applied to the Department of Transportation to move much of its Essential Air Services (EAS) work from FAR Part 121 to Part 135. Part 121 is defined as the operation of a regularly scheduled air carrier. Whereas Part 135 is defined as an air carrier and operator certification.
Part 135 regulations allow for SkyWest to use lesser-qualified first officers. The ALPA alleges that this would lessen the safety regulations for SkyWest as an air carrier. When SkyWest made its initial application in early 2022, ALPA released a statement saying,
"[The DOT would] degrade the level of air safety for small communities by granting federal funds to permit a dominant and profitable scheduled airline to shift its work to a wholly-owned charter subsidiary and use lesser-qualified first officers in the process."
A type certification under Federal Air Regulations stays with the name of the airline. So, SkyWest Airlines applied for a new certification intending to branch many of its standard operations into a new SkyWest Charters section of the business. The new SkyWest Charters would operate 18 CRJ200s. These 18 aircraft would operate 25 different under-served routes in the United States. SkyWest Charters would operate under Part 135 regulations according to the proposal.
The remainder of SkyWest's business would stay as SkyWest Airlines and allow the airline to prioritize the dual-class fleet that SkyWest owns. SkyWest Airlines would remain operating under Part 121 regulations according to the proposal.
SkyWest made its initial application to the Department of Transportation due to an alleged captain imbalance problem. The Chief Executive Officer of SkyWest Airlines, Chip Childs, said that the new charter program would adhere to the same exceptionally high standards of safety.
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ALPA's letter to the Department of Transportation
On April 26, ALPA officially penned a letter directly to the Secretary of Transportation of the United States, Pete Buttigieg. The letter, signed by Captain Jason Ambrosi, the President of ALPA, expressed ALPA's concern with SkyWest's application to move a certain amount of its flights from various certifications.
The letter states that SkyWest would be moving its government-subsidized flights in small communities to operate what is going to be tantamount to a scheduled operation. The only alleged difference between these two operations is a lesser level of safety, according to ALPA.
The letter from ALPA to the DOT also states,
"SkyWest seeks to roll back the clock and skirt the aviation safety rules that have led to a 99.8% reduction in airline passenger fatalities in the United States. ALPA strongly believes that DOT should not approve a reduction in the margin of safety of our air transportation system by degrading the effectiveness of the nation’s current first officer qualifications nor weaken Congress’s insistence on scheduled air service to small communities."
ALPA's letter also states that the union fully supports all measures to keep allowing small communities access to safe and reliable transportation services.