General News

IFALPA Legal Committee Meeting

The IFALPA Legal Committee (LEG) Meeting in Madrid (27–29 October 2025) 

AusALPA LEG Chair Robert Close, attended the meeting, which focused on strengthening pilot rights, regulatory harmonisation and protections in an evolving global legal environment. A key priority was reform of Chicago Convention Article 12, with IFALPA advocating through the ICAO Task Force for proportional enforcement, harmonised state responses, and protection of non punitive reporting systems consistent with Positive Safety Culture principles. The Committee also reviewed outcomes of the 42nd ICAO Assembly, where IFALPA working papers on fatigue management, positive safety culture and social sustainability received strong support.

Other matters included international data protection / cross border data transfers, CVR access, and inconsistent national privacy regimes that may undermine safety investigations and pilot rights.

Emerging challenges such as artificial intelligence were identified as requiring urgent policy clarity, with consensus that AI must enhance—not replace—human judgment and pilot in command authority.

IFALPA LEG Committee Meeting 2026

AusALPA are hosting the next IFALPA LEG committee meeting in the AFAP offices in Brisbane in November 2026.