Notams

Luxury international jet travel is getting media attention as a growing aviation market segment, and that growth may signal new job opportunities for pilots. A recent article by Danielle Sonnenberg of TheStreet.com focused on Talon Air's business model in the highly competitive field. The charter company has a fleet of 11 jets with three more scheduled for delivery. The article examining Talon and its niche in the business-jet market cited "significant" growth in that segment in the past 15 years, as well as a 15-percent increase in the numbers of jets shipped in the first half of 2007 compared to the same period in 2006, a statistic provided by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. Talon Marketing Director Jason Kaufman hopes the company will expand into such Southeast markets as Florida, "which will entail hiring more full-time pilots along with acquiring additional hangar space."

Northwest tackles cancellations

Plagued by scheduling difficulties that have led to the cancellation of numerous flights, Northwest Airlines Corp. and its pilots have agreed on a way to ease pilot workloads and keep scheduled flights moving. The Associated Press reported from Minneapolis that the tentative agreement would pay pilots time-and-a-half for flying more than 80 hours a month. A previous 80-hour cap was increased to 90 during bankruptcy proceedings. The hundreds of flight cancellations at the end of June and July caused by a shortage of available pilots were seen to have put a blot on Northwest's profitable emergence from Chapter 11, and have angered and inconvenienced passengers.

ALPA: Expedite 'CrewPASS'

Thousands of "highly vetted" and prescreened pilots are rescreened every day under security procedures at the nation's airports. The government could save millions of dollars eliminating that redundancy, says the Air Line Pilots Association. That is why ALPA expressed satisfaction with the passage by Congress of H.R.1, the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007. "The measure includes an ALPA-backed provision which requires the TSA to establish a process that would give flight deck and cabin crew members expedited airport access through screening check points," said an ALPA news release. ALPA's Crew Personnel Advanced Screening System is based on TSA's Cockpit Access Security System (CASS), which uses employee databases of participating airlines to electronically confirm the identity and employment status of pilots.