O SNA announced that he was against the decision of Anac (National Civil Aviation Agency), which put an end to the mandatory course for flight attendants. The understanding of this union, which represents flight attendants across the country, is that removing the mention of flight attendants would be inappropriate.
On February 7, Anac approved the new RBAC (Brazilian Civil Aviation Regulation) nº 63, which deals with the requirements for granting licenses to mechanics and flight attendants, replacing RBHA (Brazilian Aeronautical Homologation Regulation) nº 63. In 2020, the SNA carried out a consultation with crew across the country and flight attendants were against Anac's proposal.
The SNA proposes that in RBAC nº 63, the obligation to carry out a training course under RBAC nº 141 be maintained, being Anac's duty to continue certifying courses for flight attendants. Only the amendment to the mention of RBHA 63 is accepted to include RBAC 63.
The SNA points out, as mentioned in the analysis form for the proposition of a normative act (Fapan) for the public consultation in question, the non-mandatory course in CIAC may lead to a transfer of training expenses, previously borne by the student, to the air operator.
This is due to the fact that the airline operator will need more robust training and selection departments to carry out training and selection of candidates with the profile desired by the company, thus resulting in additional costs.
Failure to carry out a more careful selection process can lead to a greater number of uncommitted and unmotivated commissioners, increasing turnover in the sector and, once again, leading to additional expenses for the operator. However, nothing prevents the operator from establishing additional selection criteria in order to “filter” the candidates and seek the appropriate profile and, thus, maintain an adequate operational standard.
A concern arising from the transfer of costs is that air transport is characterized by a high-risk business, with high costs and very low profit margins when compared to other industries.
As much as operators have PTO (Operational Training Program) approved by Anac, they will spare no effort to make training more flexible and reduce costs related to this training, shortening the course so that certain disciplines, previously mandatory, become optional. .
Finally, the SNA sees ANAC's decision with alertness, and there must be mechanisms that guarantee the maintenance of an operational security level equal to or superior to the existing ones. At this point, it is up to Anac to closely monitor whether the standards are being maintained so that there is no degradation in the quality of teaching in these courses.
