The FAA is mandating that airlines “certify” that they don’t consider “race, sex or creed” when hiring pilots and base those decisions entirely on merit. “The American people don’t care what their pilot looks like or their gender—they just care that they are most qualified man or woman for the job,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy in a Friday afternoon press release. He said airlines that don’t follow the new mandatory operations specification (OpSpec) will be subject to a “federal investigation.” The full notice is here.
In the press release announcing the move is the result of what the news release says are “allegations of airlines hiring based on race and sex.” The release doesn’t cite sources for those allegations or give any examples but said it’s part of the general purge of DEI measures through the whole government. “This action is in accordance with President Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order on Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity and his Presidential Action on Keeping Americans Safe in Aviation,” the release says. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said it’s all about safety. “It is a bare minimum expectation for airlines to hire the most qualified individual when making someone responsible for hundreds of lives at a time. Someone’s race, sex, or creed has nothing to do with their ability to fly and land aircraft safely,” Bedford said.
Hmm. The FAA and DOT are selling a safety emergency without showing evidence.
You added the word emergency without any evidence of it being in the article. A better takeaway is that DEI and safety are on opposite sides of the spectrum.
Bill, Reuters basically admits the quiet part out loud. This FAA “merit-based hiring” order is not being driven by a documented safety breakdown. It is being driven by politics and the broader and on going DEI purge. And yes, the word “emergency” was mine, not theirs, but the announcement is still written like there is a safety crisis underway. Reuters notes there is no evidence airlines have been hiring unqualified pilots. That matters.
So unless the FAA shows evidence of standards being waived, this reads like a DEI takedown charade.
“it’s part of the general purge of DEI measures through the whole government”
There’s a word or phrase that escapes me when government imposes their will on corporations or businesses like airlines, isn’t there?
The FAA system is already “merit-based”. You either meet the medical, training, testing, and checkride standards, or you do not. The FAA does not hand out certificates based on who you are or what team you are on. So this “merit-based” talk is political BS dressed up like a safety fix.
When one of the few major US airlines pledges to hire 50 percent of its future pilots based on their skin color and/or sex, it seems clear that the “political bs” is manifesting on the side of that airline’s leadership. The administration’s response is unfortunate but ultimately necessary to stem the insanity being puked onto the American people.
Since there is a pilot (and mechanic and controller and..) shortage in aviation, making a “pledge” to hire based on sex or race may further limits their pool of candidates. The “pledge” is simply a marketing statement when it comes down to finding a qualified person. No for-profit organization is going to pass up income for the sake of “us too” advertising.
The FAA simply certifies one as a pilot based on single published standards. There is no merit to getting any rating. Now the airlines chose from FAA certified applicants and that is where merit comes in and DEI has no place. One should neither get the job nor be denied the job because of race, creed, or sex. The airlines and their customers simply want the best pilots period. The one who comes in last in their class in medical school is still called “doctor.” I just don’t want them operating on me anymore than I would want a marginal pilot in charge of a challenging aeronautical situation.
What you say makes sense but, 46 years ago, my application to United Airlines was declined. I called their personnel department (before the term “Human Resources) was coined, and was told that my 1,500 hours, ATP, and Flight Engineer/Turbojet ratings were insufficient. I was told that they wanted 5,000 hours of flight experience. Then the kicker, I was told point blank that, had I been a woman, they would have hired me with 500 hours flight time and an FE ticket.
DEI is a way to hire less qualified personnel for the same job.
I had a similar experience with United. I interviewed in Denver many years ago with 10,000+ hours and several type ratings. The interview was with 3 people, all women. Somewhere along the way the question was asked, would I have any problem flying with a female captain? I said, not at all as long as she was qualified, capable, and not there simply because of being a woman. My bad. I didn’t get hired, which might have been a good thing. Another pilot in my interview group who did get hired was killed on 911. I’m happily retired and now only fly when I want to.
Is there any possibility that you didn’t get hired for that job because you made it clear that you would doubt the ability of any female pilot you might be assigned to work with?
I always doubted the ability of every pilot I flew with until I knew I could trust my life to them. You get to be an old pilot for a reason.
“ratings. The interview was with 3 people, all women. Somewhere along the way the question was asked, would I have any problem flying with a female captain? I said, not at all as long as she was qualified, capable, and not there simply because of being a woman. My bad.”
Was not being hired surprising to you?
“I said, not at all as long as she was qualified, capable, and not there simply because of being a woman. My bad.”
I wouldn’t have hired you either. Adding the “and not there simply because of being a woman” was unnecessary since the “as long as she was qualified and capable” already covers that latter case.
No, Dan. DEI was an attempt to rectify, in some small way, decades (centuries?) of employment discrimination based on something other than the ability to do the job. In the same way that when you stole your sister’s cupcake, your mother gave her a cupcake with sprinkles on it.
This is surprisingly broad to solve a specific perceived problem. The underlying regulation makes no mention of DEI, but instead is very clear that all hiring decisions must be “exclusively merit based”. This would imply that the recruiter can’t take into account other factors like salary, required working patterns, location, career aspirations, or any of the other normal commercial considerations in a hiring decision. Perhaps this was drafted without sufficient thought?
“This would imply that the recruiter can’t take into account other factors…” I would argue that no one in any position would interpret the order in this way.
Yes, this was drafted without sufficient thought.
The DOT did not provide any evidence that any airlines are hiring pilots through DEI initiatives, but stated “…allegations of airlines hiring based on race and sex remain.”
(https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/trumps-us-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-doubles-down-purging-dei-our-skies )
But you have to admit, at least the administration has the courage to stand up for what is right, in the face of the severe leftism and political correctness that is destroying America. President Trump may not be perfect, but he’s trying to correct so much evil and feminism from so many decades that it has abused men, that you have to admire his efforts.
This administration is in an fine place to talk about hiring ‘qualified’ people; see ‘Airspace Closure – El Paso’.
Maybe I’m wrong, though. It’s certainly capable of finding qualified people – it’s just that it tends to fire them, not hire them.
Nowadays the ‘merit-based’ straw man is becoming dated and sad, being revealed to have been wrong and unnecessary all along, tumbling down into the dung heap of human history. Just read a bit, it will reveal itself.
Considering the explosion of just the progress of technology and robotics in today’s workforce in cars and aircraft etc., using “merit-based” as a strawman enables a poster to avoid engaging with the actual, more complex, and often uncomfortable arguments about equity and systemic barriers of applicants. It also tends to prevent expansion of human understanding, too. Kind of a lose-lose effort.
It will be shown eventually (actually, it is widely known by most already) that these fearful screeches of ‘ merit-based! merit-based! ‘ will eventually lie in an unmarked grave in the past, so ordered to protect the decendants of the true believers from future embarrassment.
So I am interested in exactly how the airlines and FAA will verify compliance with this mandate. If they hire even one female or non Caucasian will someone from the FAA require a hearing to prove that there no better qualified Caucasian males to choose from?
I think this is a good policy. For far too long white men have gotten hired over others not out of merit but because they were members of the white and male club.
and that is one real issue here! I flew with many women pilots over the years, in general they make better pilots and they have lower accident rates, too. So yeah make it about “merit”.
It would seem as though hiring the most qualified WITHOUT regard to race, sex, or creed…..ummm…might be in the interest of the highest level of safety? Not to mention kind of what the whole Founding Fathers documents had in mind, something about equality and equal opportunity, (not “spotting extra points” either way) and so forth?
Irony merit-based for pilots. Leadership? Noem, Patel, Bondi, Hegseth. RFK Jr FFS…
Talent is everywhere. Opportunity is not.