President’s Opinion

I recently attended the 2010 conference in Hamburg of the AEI (Aircraft Engineers International), the international body representing aircraft engineers. It was a real eye opener, once again showing the extraordinary lengths airline companies will go to, to ignore and abuse safety regulations set by EASA (European Aviation Safety Administration) and NAA (National Aviation Authority).

In one case over 15,000 one-off approvals were used to allow aircraft to fly out of unmanned ports without the necessary maintenance being carried out.

The conference discussed how AEI’s affiliates can work together to improve regulatory frameworks and reverse the current worldwide trend of regulators failing to stand up to operators, which is undermining the safety gains of the last two decades.

Qantas EA negotiations are underway. At the last meeting on 30^th September the ALAEA Negotiation Team was briefed on the company’s financial position and put forward our log of claims, which was constructed from information gathered and compiled from the members survey by the Executive. The ALAEA outlined it would need more time to put together the wages claim. At the next meeting in mid-October the Qantas Negotiation Team is to put forward the company’s log of claims.  

Expressions of Interest for the Aircraft Maintenance Technology (AMT) MSC (Maintenance Skills Competition) are open and I ask all LAMEs interested to apply as the group will be shortlisted soon. This is a great opportunity to showcase the skills of Australian LAMEs.

There are several positions for delegates still available for the Federal Conference in December 2010. For those who wish to apply please send through EOIs to the office and attention both myself and Trina Booth.

 Keep safe,

 Paul Cousins, President

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