The White House nominated former Delta Air Lines pilot Jeffrey Anderson to serve as ICAO rep, drawing ire from his union, ALPA.
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President Donald Trump’s nomination for the role of ambassador and U.S. representative of the International Civil Aviation Organization is rankling the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), which has been at loggerheads with the nominee, Jeffrey Anderson, over the commercial pilot mandatory retirement age.
On Thursday, the White House announced the nomination of Anderson to the role that has been vacant since C.B. “Sully” Sullenberger, the famed pilot who successfully landed an Airbus A320 on New York’s Hudson River in 2009 after hitting a flock of geese, abruptly resigned in June 2022, just six months after he was confirmed to the post.
Anderson, who had served as a Delta Air Lines pilot for 25 years and served as Delta’s national representative with ALPA as well as on the union’s PAC board, has also founded and served as policy director with Enclave Policy Partners to provide independent policy analysis.
However, he has campaigned to raise the mandatory airline pilot retirement age from 65 to 67, writing an opinion piece in 2024 entitled “How the Pilots Union Campaign Against Its Own Members Could Mean Heavy Turbulence for Organized Labor and Their Champions in Washington.”
Shortly after the announcement, ALPA voiced strong opposition to Anderson’s selection, issuing a statement that Anderson “is unqualified” to fulfill the mission of maintaining the U.S.’s global leadership in aviation safety.
President Donald Trump’s nomination for the role of ambassador and U.S. representative of the International Civil Aviation Organization is rankling the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), which has been at loggerheads with the nominee, Jeffrey Anderson, over the commercial pilot mandatory retirement age.
On Thursday, the White House announced the nomination of Anderson to the role that has been vacant since C.B. “Sully” Sullenberger, the famed pilot who successfully landed an Airbus A320 on New York’s Hudson River in 2009 after hitting a flock of geese, abruptly resigned in June 2022, just six months after he was confirmed to the post.
Anderson, who had served as a Delta Air Lines Pilot for 25 years and served as Delta’s national representative with ALPA as well as on the union’s PAC board, has also founded and served as policy director with Enclave Policy Partners to provide independent policy analysis.
However, he has campaigned to raise the mandatory airline pilot retirement age from 65 to 67, writing an opinion piece in 2024 entitled “How the Pilots Union Campaign Against Its Own Members Could Mean Heavy Turbulence for Organized Labor and Their Champions in Washington.”
Shortly after the announcement, ALPA voiced strong opposition to Anderson’s selection, issuing a statement that Anderson “is unqualified” to fulfill the mission of maintaining the U.S.’s global leadership in aviation safety.