DePete Calls Claims of Imminent Pilot Shortages False Rhetoric
In a letter to FAA Administrator Billy Nolen, Airline Pilots Association president, Joseph G. DePete (pictured), excoriated Republic Airlines’s proposal to lower the the required pilot minimums for its R-ATP program from 1,500 hours to 750. Republic’s R-ATP program is a proposed, closed-loop system that the airline would operate within its subsidiary, LIFT Academy training program. Republic claims the benefit of the closed-loop system is that pilots selected to participate are trained entirely in house, in keeping with Part 141 training standards specific to ATP requirements.