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02 December 2003: Representatives of a quarter of a million cabin crew staff in over 100 countries will today ask UK Secretary of State for Transport Alistair Darling to help persuade the European Union that they need a professional qualification to assist them to ensure safer and more secure flights.
Serving members of the Cabin Crew Committee of global trade union body the ITF will deliver a letter explaining their case to the DETR (UK Department of Transport) at Great Minster House, 76 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DR, at 16:15 today. They are asking the Secretary of State to throw the UK's support behind the proposal to introduce a common European qualification for cabin crew, which is due to be discussed at a meeting of the EU Council of Transport Ministers which Mr Darling will attend in Brussels from 3 to 4 December 2003.
"It's time to close the security loop," explained Shane Enright, Secretary of the ITF's Civil Aviation section. "Ground engineers are licensed and so are pilots. The post-September 11th change to locked cockpits leaves cabin crew effectively in charge of everything except the flying of a plane, making it crucial that all of them are qualified to the high level that many countries now demand."
He continued: "This is the first step of a campaign to achieve a universal standard of competence first in Europe and then in the rest of the world."
"We believe that the cost implications are absolutely negligible - for many airlines and training bodies nothing more than the price of the certificate that confirms satisfactory completion of existing training courses." Half of all ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) member states already issue a cabin crew licence.
Patricia Friend, Chair of the ITF Cabin Crew Committee and International President of US union the AFA (Association of Flight Attendants), added: "The US has recently enacted legislation mandating certification of cabin crew qualification and competence. As the International President of the world's largest cabin crew union, I call on the UK and EU authorities - in the interests of the aviation regulatory harmonisation necessary for an open aviation area between the US and EU - to immediately legislate the certification/licensing of cabin crew in all member states."
Source: ITF Media Statement
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