New year, new challenges, new working methods

The first Cockpit Flash of the year is always a good opportunity to look back and remember what happened in 2017… and to consider what’s to be expected in 2018. Although 2017 saw the integration of Thomas Cook into Brussels airlines the most remarkable fact of 2017 remains Ryanair pilots’ uprising all around Europe, which reached its peak with the first ever strike in the Irish airline’s history just before Christmas (read more on page 6). BeCA has been at the heart of the fight, together with the main European pilots’ associations and ECA.

2018 started with another group of pilots being unhappy: Brussels Airlines, which first led pilots to proceed to “soft” actions. The new Eurowings plans for Brussels Airlines are unclear yet but the finalisation of the TCAB integration and coordination with our German colleagues to avoid the watering down of Brussels Airlines working conditions are on top of BeCA’s agenda.

And something unseen for a long time in our country, the launch of two new Belgian airlines, Air Belgium and SHS Aviation (“new VLM”), is to be expected in the coming months as well.

2018 will be another intense year and BeCA, more than ever, will stand beside its members.

BeCA’s new Constitution and Bylaws: much more than meaningless words…

Another important fact that marked the beginning of 2018 was the adoption of our new Constitution and Bylaws (http://bit.ly/2Huim79) during our Extraordinary General Assembly on 11 January. At first sight, these texts might not seem interesting for many of our members, but they remain the foundation of our association and we simplified them a lot compared to the previous versions.

Thanks to these new, easier and clearer working rules, we want to give BeCA the best working methods. From a legal point of view, we had to update them before 2020, in order to keep our status of “Union professionnelle / Beroepsvereniging”. We managed to do it thanks to a small group of hard-working active members. Thanks a lot!

The big advantages of these texts for all our members are a clear definition of services they get as members, as well as an extension of the Company Vice-President’s role.

For BeCA members who also have delegates mandates in their company, the Air Safety Committee and the Industrial Working Group provide them with resources and a sharing of their work for defending pilots more efficiently.

Finally, for the members of the Executive Committee, the new 2-layer structure (with the creation of an Executive Board for day-to-day and quick decisions) allows us to better face our members’ requests in a professional way.

Don’t forget that all BeCA Committee members are volunteers and the real challenge for our non-profit organisation is to continue to deliver a service that is close to pilots and to represent our profession, efficiently while respecting the lives of people who get involved for you.

Think about it next time we send a call for candidates!

Capt. Alain Vanalderweireldt, BeCA President