Safety Through Partnership

NATCA and ALPA’s Shared Advocacy Mission

Every summer, the Experimental Aircraft Association’s AirVenture Oshkosh celebrates the innovation, passion, and professionalism that define American aviation. This year’s event also showcased something equally important: the partnership between the professionals who operate the safest aviation system in the world.

Standing alongside ALPA at Oshkosh, I was reminded that although pilots and air traffic controllers perform different jobs, we share the same mission. Every decision we make is guided by one objective—getting every aircraft safely to its destination.

That shared mission extends well beyond the flight deck and the control room. It’s made the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) and ALPA strong partners in advocating for policies that improve the national airspace system by representing the professionals who monitor it and those who operate within it.

Over the past several years, our organizations have worked together on Capitol Hill, with the FAA and the Department of Transportation (DOT), and with other industry stakeholders to ensure that aviation safety remains a top national priority. We’ve spoken with one voice because the challenges facing our industry—and the solutions—are shared.

One of our highest priorities has been rebuilding the air traffic controller workforce. Staffing shortages affect controllers and pilots in different ways, but the operational impacts are felt across the entire aviation system. Together, NATCA and ALPA have advocated for sustained maximum hiring, improvements to the controller training pipeline, and long-term workforce planning that recognizes the years required to develop a certified professional controller. Committing to our people remains one of the most important investments we can make in aviation safety.

Our partnership has also helped advance several bipartisan legislative initiatives that will make our aviation system even stronger.

Together, we continue to support legislation to provide pilots with better situational-awareness tools, remove conflicts between helicopter and fixed-wing routes around airports, and ensure that the Department of Defense must meet the same safety standards as the commercial and general aviation communities.

We’ve also championed the Mental Health in Aviation Act, because air traffic controllers and pilots who seek mental-health care face significant obstacles. The current system perpetuates a culture of silence and stigma that must be addressed. The Mental Health in Aviation Act and the Aviation Medication Transparency Act would eliminate many of the barriers to mental-health care for both of our unions’ members. These bills would help ensure the well-being of our critical professionals and enhance safety for the flying public.

Although the legislation we both advocate for address different issues, they all reflect the same principle: Aviation safety is strongest when policies are informed by the frontline professionals who operate the system every day.

That principle also applies to modernization.

NATCA and ALPA strongly support the DOT and FAA’s efforts to modernize our national airspace system. New technologies, including automation and other tools, have tremendous potential to improve efficiency and safety, but only when they’re developed with meaningful input from the controllers and pilots who’ll use them. Technology should enhance human expertise—not replace it. Decisions involving the safety of human beings must always remain in the hands of highly trained aviation professionals.

The success of our aviation system has always depended on collaboration. Pilots and controllers rely on one another every day, building trust through routine operations and responding together when challenges arise. This partnership is one of the reasons the United States continues to set the global standard for aviation safety.

The conversations we shared at Oshkosh reflected that spirit of collaboration. More importantly, they demonstrated what’s possible when NATCA and ALPA work together to advance common goals. By speaking with one voice on staffing, modernization, and commonsense safety legislation, we’re helping build an even stronger national airspace system—for aviation professionals and for the millions of people who depend on us every day.