aviation – Employment, Energy and Environment

Safe Landing Press Release

For publication on 23.09.2022:

Safe Landing demands an Aviation Workers’ Climate Assembly ahead of the International Civil Aviation Assembly (ICAO)’s 41st General Assembly, to include and empower aviation workers to develop an independent vision for the future of air travel.

Date of Release – 23.09.2022

ICAO Headquarters, Montréal, Canada, 21st September 2022, — Safe Landing is a growing global movement of aviation workers campaigning for long-term employment. They do this by challenging business & political leaders to conform with climate science and reject dangerous growth. They advocate for a sustainable and adaptive aviation industry and are proposing that ICAO facilitate anAviation Workers’ Climate Assembly. This would enable aviation workers to navigate a secure future for their careers, in line with current climate science. A Workers’ Assembly would be run independently of corporate and political influence, with a sortition process that would democratically select a group of participants representative of worker demographics across the sector. These workers would be presented with expert information from various climate, technology and policy specialists, before engaging in facilitated deliberation, in order to then produce and vote on output recommendations that can be presented to ICAO and other relevant political & industry organisations.

Safe Landing, founded by Todd Smith and Finlay Asher, has been operating since 2020 and includes aviation workers from across the globe. It now has over 600 active supporters from across the aviation sector. The group demands that business leaders:

be honest about the total environmental impact of flying,

be realistic about the limits of technology to solve this problem,
be transparent about future regulations required to reduce emissions,
and have a robust plan, that accounts for this, and supports workers during any transition

In the absence of these actions, Safe Landing promotes the concept of Aviation Workers’ Assemblies to relevant Trade Unions and organisations operating within the sector: as a tool for aviation workers to design and then demand a sustainable future for the aviation industry, with safe careers within it.

Finlay Asher, 32, co-founder of Safe Landing and aircraft engine designer states “the aviation industry is currently emerging from years of turbulence induced by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, as aircraft return to the skies in ever greater numbers, we run the risk of failing to learn from history, and flying workers straight back into danger. Rather than use this opportunity to pivot aviation and transform air travel: business leaders are doubling-down on business-as-usual growth of fossil fuel reliant aircraft and airports. When the next crisis hits us, it will be workers once again taking the hit. We have to recognise that our current leaders are not on our side, most won’t be around in 2030 to deal with the consequences of the next major industry crash. As aviation workers, we want safe and secure careers spanning decades. It’s time to grab the controls in the flightdeck, and chart our own safe flight path forward.”

Todd Smith, 33, co-founder of Safe Landing and airline pilot, also adds, “with the remaining global carbon budget we have left, we can’t continue to double air traffic every 15 years, as we have done historically. We want to empower aviation workers to understand that we need to change how we fly in the short-term, so that we can safeguard the existence of a healthy aviation sector in the long-term. As pilots, we’re trained to think free from bias and to mitigate risks, in order to preserve life. We must follow our training and ensure that the industry does everything it can to minimise danger to our workforce, our communities and our homes. After all, safety is our Number 1 priority. We need workers to get round the table, then let’s give them the time and the space to do what we do best: come up with solutions. We need all aviation workers on board: on the journey towards a sustainable future for the planet and for our own industry – we are all crew.”

Contact

For more information regarding this press release, please contact Finlay Asher. Press contact for Safe Landing: Finlay Asher
Contact Details: info@safe-landing.org, +44 (0)7984 602404

About Safe Landing

Safe Landing is a group of professionals within the aviation industry: pilots, cabin crew, airline and airport staff, air traffic controllers, aerospace engineers, and factory workers.

Our website: www.safe-landing.org
Why we exist: https://safe-landing.org/why-safe-landing/
Meet our crew: https://safe-landing.org/meet-the-crew/
Group position Q&A: https://safe-landing.org/questionsandanswers/
Aviation Workers’ Assembly explainer: https://safe-landing.org/assembly/
Aviation Workers’ Assembly promo video on Youtube: https://youtu.be/8vjPuwYYEAk ICAO Petition: https://tinyurl.com/aviationassembly

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