Release #07.056
October 25, 2007

ALPA and Plaintiff Groups Reach Tentative Agreement for Settlement of Two Pilot Litigations
Court Approval of Agreement Will End Long-Standing Lawsuits

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA) and the Plaintiff Committee in the Ford v. ALPA and Cooksey v. ALPA lawsuits today announced that the governing bodies of ALPA have approved a settlement of these two lawsuits, which concern procedures and methodologies for ALPA’s negotiation with mainline air carriers of terms governing these carriers’ express operations.

ALPA believes that the processes created by this settlement will increase coordination, communication, and cooperation among pilots of airline families to the overall benefit of the pilot profession. The cases were filed in 2001 and 2003 by groups of pilots employed by Delta Connection carriers Comair and ASA.

The agreement was negotiated on behalf of ALPA by a subcommittee of the ALPA Executive Council. Several of the plaintiffs directly participated in the negotiations. Both ALPA’s Executive Council and its Executive Board have now approved the settlement, with the Executive Board on October 23 unanimously approving additions to ALPA policies concerning collective bargaining of scope provisions by ALPA pilot groups within mainline and express airline families. A financial component is also included for partial reimbursement of fees and costs.

The settlement and the additions to ALPA policy are conditioned on ultimate Court approval, upon which the Ford and Cooksey cases would be dismissed.

Founded in 1931, ALPA is the world’s largest pilot union representing more than 60,000 cockpit crewmembers at 42 airlines in the U.S. and Canada. Visit the ALPA website at www.alpa.org.

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ALPA CONTACT: ALPA Communications, 703-481-4440