American Airlines Leads Meeting to Push for Universal Identification Cards And Reciprocal Jumpseat Privileges
FORT WORTH, Texas, June 7 /PRNewswire/ -- American Airlines Vice President
- Flight, Captain Robert Kudwa, hosted a meeting with industry members to
discuss the urgent need to resume reciprocal jumpseat privileges among
airlines.
"This reciprocal agreement is extremely important to the men and women who
crew our commercial planes and require this type of access to commute to
work," said Kudwa.
Prior to Sept. 11, many American Airlines pilots often rode in the
cockpits or "jumpseats" of other airlines through a reciprocal agreement to
commute to work. Current rules and regulations resulting from the events of
Sept. 11 now limit American Airlines pilots to the jumpseats of American or
American Eagle aircraft.
In May, Kudwa, along with Jane Allen, Vice President - Flight Services,
and Dan Garton, Executive Vice President - Customer Service, sent a letter to
Transportation Security Administration Chief John Magaw urging him to
implement a universal identification card for flight crews and other airport
workers.
"One of the key reasons American Airlines strongly supports a universal
identification card is its ability to guarantee the identity of the card
bearer," said Kudwa. "We believe these cards would allow the restrictions
currently imposed on jumpseat privileges to be lifted."
"As outlined in our letter to Undersecretary Magaw, American Airlines
believes that using biometrics or the proposed Transportation Worker
Identification Cards (TWICs) would be the long-term solution to standardizing
the identification process and expediting and simplifying airport screening
processes. I am pleased to know that others in the airline industry share our
view and support our call for a universal identification card," Kudwa said.
Roger
EWROPS