If you wonder who is running BeCA, the answer is simple: airline pilots, just like you! This is well summed up in our motto “for pilots, by pilots”. Why is that? Well, who can better understand and therefore tackle pilots’ and operational issues than another pilot? Of course, these pilot volunteers don’t work alone: they receive the support of two team members, from the administrative and communication points of view.

Today, the BeCA Executive Committee is composed of nine pilots: two from Brussels Airlines, two from Thomas Cook Airline Belgium, two from EAT/DHL, two from TNT and one from Jetairfly. This team works harmoniously with a common vision: defending every BeCA member, every pilot group, and the pilot profession in general – and our profession needs to be defended, now more than ever, with the ongoing challenges we face (pay-to-fly, “zero-hour” contracts, etc.) and reputation issues (as the GermanWings accident).
Our continuous work is declined at three levels:

• National: these are the big files that require experience, contacts and working capacity. We work actively towards the BCAA and the cabinet of transportation to ensure our voice is heard, in close cooperation with unions. We often coordinate with our European and international associations, ECA and IFALPA, to determine common positions and organise common actions. The best example of this is the Flight Time Limitations campaign. Other examples include: EU-US agreements and its consequences on our profession (see the below article on TNT); licensing issues (e.g. the derogation issue for expat members); gathering of data, such as the safety culture survey that we conducted a few months ago; etc. These are the long term, ballistic goals where achievements can take years. But if BeCA does not do it, who will?
• Individual defence of our members: in case of problems, one committee member (loss of licence, incident, etc.) accompanies personally the member in difficulty with experts’ assistance (lawyer, colleagues, ECA, IFALPA, etc.). We usually don’t communicate about these events, for obvious confidentiality reasons, as you can imagine. However, members who get our support are always satisfied and grateful to us.
• Support to pilot boards: this area is more difficult to understand. Obviously, many members tend to believe that every company is different, and what is going on in their airline has nothing to do with the others. As president in charge since 2008, I can guarantee you that most issues are very similar in all airlines, only timing differs and “local touch”. Indeed, no matter what safety, technical or industrial/social issues your airline is facing, I can tell you that they have already happened in another one, or will soon. This is why the sharing of experience and knowledge between airlines’ pilot boards and union committees is paramount. Thanks to past events, we can draw lessons, react more rapidly or even act proactively (e.g. the TNT file, see below).

For all these reasons, BeCA was created and has been working hard these past 16 years of activity. But we need our members to make it work! The more pilots we will represent, the more other stakeholders will listen to us. So, share the word and talk to your colleagues to convince them to join BeCA! Joining BeCA is an easy process that can be done online or by (e)mail.

By Capt. Alain Vanalderweireldt, BeCA President