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American Airlines Vice President - Flight, Captain Robert Kudwa, hosted a meeting with industry members to discuss the urgent need to resume reciprocal jumpseat privileges among airlines.
"This reciprocal agreement is extremely important to the men and women who crew our commercial planes and require this type of access to commute to work," said
Kudwa.
Prior to Sept. 11, many American Airlines pilots often rode in the cockpits or "'jumpseats" of other airlines through a reciprocal agreement to commute to work. Current rules and regulations resulting from the events of Sept.11 now limit American Airlines pilots to the jumpseats of American or American Eagle aircraft.
In May, Kudwa, along with Jane Allen, Vice President - Flight Services, and Dan Garton, Executive Vice President - Customer Service, sent a letter to Transportation Security Administration Chief John Magaw urging him to implement a universal identification card for flight crews and other airport workers.
"One of the key reasons American Airlines strongly supports a universal identification card is its ability to guarantee the identity of the card bearer," said Kudwa. "We believe these cards would allow the restrictions currently imposed on jumpseat privileges to be lifted."
"As outlined in our letter to Undersecretary Magaw, American Airlines believes that using biometrics or the proposed Transportation Worker Identification Cards (TWICs) would be the long-term solution to standardizing the identification process and expediting and simplifying airport screening processes. I am pleased to know that others in the airline industry share our view and support our call for a universal identification card," Kudwa said.
American Airlines, the world's largest carrier, together with its regional affiliates American Eagle and the AmericanConnection carriers, serves more than 250 cities in more than 40 countries and territories with more than 4,400 daily flights. |
