Still a Long Way to Go on Implementing New FAA Safety Standards

AFA-CWA International President Sara Nelson shared CWA members' perspective at a hearing on the implementation of important safety standards.

AFA-CWA International President Sara Nelson shared CWA members' perspective at a hearing held by the House Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation on the implementation of important safety standards to protect Flight Attendants and passenger service agents included in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018.

"Flight Attendants are daily experiencing reduced rest and the difficulty of performing our safety and security sensitive duties while fatigued," Nelson told the Committee. "In a May 2019 AFA survey that included nearly 20,000 responses from Flight Attendants at 30 airlines, implementation of the 10 hour irreducible minimum rest continues to be the overwhelming regulatory priority for Flight Attendants. We continue to receive reports of rest reduced to the 8 hour FAA minimum between extremely long duty days. This is a critical issue of safety that needs to be fixed now."

"Passenger service agents continue to experience assault on almost routine basis and have been frustrated by the failure of carriers to prepare for assault situations and especially to develop clear protocols in how to handle assault occurrences," Nelson said. She urged the Committee to exercise its oversight responsibilities and push the FAA to ensure that all airlines are abiding by new requirements directing carriers to develop and implement assault incident protocol.

Watch the full video here.