15 years old and not a wrinkle!

By Capt Alain Vanalderweireldt, BeCA President

It was in October 2013, after a TV interview on the EU FTL project and our awareness-raising campaign. The journalists were about to leave BeCA offices. One of their technicians, who had stayed very silent until then, approached me and said “the public and pilots should understand how important it is that organizations like BeCA exist. We are very lucky you and your team exist”. I will never forget this moment, which justifies all the efforts and sacrifices the BeCA team has invested for the past 15 years.

Yes, you read well… 15 years of existence…. Already! 15 years of challenges, of difficulties, but also of happy endings and successes. Every day, new issues arise, in the industrial, legal, social or technical areas. And BeCA is always there, first-line, to ensure pilots’ rights and aviation safety are enforced.

The situation nowadays is very different from 15 years ago. On the European level, companies such as Ryanair and Norwegian Air International are promoting new models that are having direct impacts on our profession, our working conditions and the whole aviation system. Luckily, the European Cockpit Association is there to defend our positions and rights at EU level and BeCA actively participates in this association that becomes more and more important.
In Belgium, we are facing a lot of new challenges too, with the CAA, the supreme aviation Belgian authority, losing its independence and transparency. Without BeCA, who would make sure these issues are made public and corrective measures applied?

Do you sometimes wonder why BeCA is there and what we do with your money? Then, take a few minutes to read this newsletter and keep in mind that it only sums up the “top of the iceberg”, a few hot issues among the many other files we take care of.

So yes, not only is BeCA important, but it is vital to the defense of our uncommon profession and aviation safety. But all this would not possible without you, without every single pilot member and without our committed and hard-working team of volunteers, who spend some of their spare time for the benefit of the whole pilot community. At our General Assembly, the executive committee was partly reelected. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the leaving directors for their involvement and warmly welcome the new team members. Enjoy the reading!