In Focus: The FAA’s Decades-Long Struggle to Put a Price on Aviation Safety
July 25, 2025 - A recent article in The Air Current put a spotlight on the Federal Aviation Administration’s dual mandate, as defined by law, to promote and regulate the aviation industry — meaning new safety regulations must demonstrate net economic benefits. Our union strongly discourages this calculation because cost should not factor into safety. Safety must come first, always.
As a party to the official National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Alaska 1282 investigation, we pushed the FAA on this issue. The article reads in part:
Confusion over the [FAA’s] mandate remains. During the August 2024 NTSB investigative hearing held on the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 mid-exit door incident, an investigator from the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) asked FAA oversight personnel assigned to Boeing’s manufacturing unit how they balance implementing the agency’s “dual mandate to both regulate and promote” the industry.
“It’s a hard balance sometimes,” the FAA employee responded. “Yes, it is a dual mandate but we work that through ensuring that the product is safe.”
Both the AFA investigator’s question and the answer reflect the ongoing lack of certainty around the FAA’s often-in-conflict mandates. Today, federal law identifies safety as the FAA’s “highest priority,” but not its only one, adding the agency is also meant “to encourage efficient and well-managed air carriers to earn adequate profits and attract capital,” among other things.
Our work in the investigation was also cited by an NTSB board member, who found our materials valuable. We will never stop fighting to make our aviation system the safest in the world.
