Professional & Government Affairs
Building Industrial Resilience for Pilots’ Associations
Professional & Government Affairs (PGA) is IFALPA’s dedicated area of work for government engagement, labour affairs, legal matters, social sustainability, and professional advocacy.
As aviation becomes increasingly complex, pilots’ associations must be prepared not only to represent their members locally, but also to respond to global airline structures, cross-border operations, evolving employment models, and changing regulatory environments. PGA supports Member Associations by strengthening the knowledge, strategy, and collective capacity needed to negotiate effectively, uphold professional standards, and defend pilots’ rights.
Through its work in labour affairs, legal matters, and government engagement, IFALPA helps associations enhance their collective bargaining capabilities, share expertise, and develop coordinated responses to the challenges facing airline pilots worldwide.
This work also contributes to a socially sustainable aviation industry, one that values decent work, fair representation, professional standards and the human expertise essential to safe flight operations.
At its core, PGA exists to protect and strengthen the piloting profession, ensuring that airline pilots continue to be recognized as safety-critical professionals whose working conditions, rights, and collective voice are fundamental to a safe, fair, and resilient global aviation system.
Protecting the Profession in a Changing Aviation Industry
The airline industry has been reshaped over several decades. Starting with deregulation in the United States in the late 1970s, followed by successive waves of liberalisation, denationalisation, privatisation, and the growth of global airline groups, aviation has moved far beyond the traditional model of nationally based carriers operating within clearly defined domestic frameworks.
These long-term changes continue to affect pilots directly. They influence how pilots are employed, how their careers develop, how professional standards are protected, and how pilots’ associations can represent their members effectively. They also raise broader questions about the long-term sustainability of aviation as both an industry and a profession.
For IFALPA, engaging in Professional & Government Affairs is therefore essential. Technical and operational safety remain central to the Federation’s mission, but the conditions under which pilots work are also fundamental to a safe and sustainable aviation system. Pilots must operate in an environment where they feel safe to speak up, report safety-critical information, and raise concerns without fear of retaliation.
A profession that is respected, properly represented, fairly treated, and socially sustainable is better positioned to support safe operations, preserve a strong safety culture, and attract future generations of pilots.
Through PGA, IFALPA connects professional expertise with policy advocacy, helping Member Associations address the wider forces shaping aviation and ensuring that pilots’ voices are heard in decisions affecting the future of the profession.
Focus Areas
Labour Relations
Social Sustainability
Government Engagement
Collective Bargaining
Transnational Airlines
Mutual Assistance
Social sustainability in aviation
Social sustainability is becoming an increasingly important part of aviation policy. For IFALPA, it means ensuring that the development of aviation is not measured only in economic or environmental terms, but also through people, working conditions, professional standards, fairness, and long-term resilience.
Airline pilots are central to the safe functioning of the aviation system. Their training, experience, judgment, and professionalism are critical assets. Protecting these assets requires strong professional standards, fair employment conditions, meaningful representation, career stability, diversity of opportunity, and respect for the role pilots play in society.
Through PGA, IFALPA promotes a socially sustainable aviation industry where growth and innovation do not come at the expense of decent work, safety culture, or professional integrity. This includes working with international institutions such as ICAO and the ILO to advocate for policies that recognize the human dimension of aviation and support a future in which pilots’ associations remain strong, representative, and effective.
Social sustainability is not separate from aviation safety. It is part of the foundation on which safe, reliable, and resilient air transport is built.
Meet the leadership team
Capt. Dara van Langen
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Capt. van Langen flies the B777 and B787 for KLM. He has been involved in the PGA and ADO Committees at IFALPA since 2011 and the Flight Technical Committee and International Affairs Committee at his home MA of VNV. At ECA, Dara has served as Chair of the Training, Licensing, & Operations Working Group and as a member of the Industrial Working Group, and has been doing pilot peer support since 2015.
Capt. Antoine César Brébant
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Capt. Brébant flies the A330 and A321LR, based in Toronto. With more than 20 years of flying experience, he has been actively involved in union work for many years, serving ALPA Canada as a Master Executive Council officer. He brings extensive experience in collective bargaining, negotiations and strategic planning, and now advocates for pilots’ interests on professional and regulatory matters at the global level.
Capt. Kevin Judkins
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Captain Judkins flies the B777 for British Airways. Active in international pilot affairs since 2006 when he became a Union Representative for BALPA, Kevin served as Vice-Chair of the British Airways Company Council (BACC) between 2006-2012 and Chairman between 2012-16. He served as chair of the OCCC between 2018-2021.