American Airlines to use nonunion pilots for some test flights, drawing criticism

But the Allied Pilots Association, which represents American’s roughly 15,000 pilots, opposes the measure.

“The foundation of AA’s strong safety culture has been a commitment to ensuring that independent, protected, and unintimidated pilots are conducting these critical safety check flights versus management pilots who may have a conflict of interest,” Eric Ferguson, an American Airlines captain and APA’s president, said in a Feb. 19 message to members. “Any move to crack that foundation will be met with the strongest opposition by APA.”

The union did not say that there were any imminent or specific safety risks or that procedures were out of line with federal standards.

American said that its company pilots were already performing most of these flights and that they received the same specialized training as union test pilots.