Airline pilots are required to develop specific skill sets such as planning and decision-making, leadership effectiveness, situational awareness, and communication skills to pilot aircraft at a master craftsman level. These same skills must apply to our ALPA President. The time has come to ask a fundamental question: does President Jason Ambrosi possess the judgment, discipline, and integrity required to lead our union?
Leadership Crisis at ALPA
President Ambrosi has repeatedly demonstrated poor judgment, hypocrisy, and reckless partisanship. Nowhere was this more evident than in his impulsive reaction to the nomination of Captain Jeff Anderson as U.S. Ambassador to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Instead of consulting with his executive leadership team or weighing the broader diplomatic and political implications, Ambrosi launched an immediate, unprovoked attack. His knee-jerk response alienated the President of the United States, key committee chairs in Congress, and likely senior figures in the State Department.Anderson’s nomination was not an emergency. There was no union crisis requiring an all-hands public response. And yet, Ambrosi treated it as a threat to be neutralized rather than an opportunity to elevate a proven labor advocate. Is this how effective union leadership behaves? Or was this a display of ego and political calculation?
Ambrosi’s Hypocrisy on Age and Union Service
Ambrosi has publicly opposed raising the mandatory retirement age for pilots beyond 65. Yet, he and others in ALPA’s leadership benefit from no such age restriction. Canadian ALPA pilots fly past 65. ICAO allows it. ALPA allows it in other countries. So why are U.S. line pilots uniquely barred from continuing their careers? The double standard is clear: one rule for the executive suite, another for the flight deck.While Ambrosi himself is not over 65—he was born in the 1970s—he continues to enforce an arbitrary limit on others, with no merit-based justification. The hypocrisy is staggering: those who advocate the loudest against pilot age reform are the ones who never have to follow their own rules.
The Smear Campaign Against Jeff Anderson
Within hours of Anderson’s nomination, Ambrosi began a campaign of public disparagement—politically motivated, dishonest, and unjustified. He labeled Anderson a “one-trick pony,” reducing his decades of service as a commercial Captain, naval aviator, labor negotiator, and union leader to a single policy disagreement.The truth? Anderson supports 12 of ALPA National’s 13 “Urgent Calls to Action.” He has led successful contract negotiations, reformed safety protocols, and served with distinction both in uniform and in the union. If supporting age reform—a policy grounded in logic, data, and global precedent—makes someone unqualified, then ALPA’s definition of leadership has lost all meaning.So who is the real one-trick pony? Anderson, who brought forward a thoughtful reform proposal? Or Ambrosi, who used that proposal as a political wedge to silence dissent?
The VFR Direct Betrayal
Here is the timeline ALPA won’t talk about:Jeff Anderson brought his retirement age proposal to ALPA leadership first. He shared his white paper. He sought internal debate.ALPA declined to take it up and told him: “Go talk to your congressional representative.”Anderson did exactly what he was told. He went VFR direct to Congress.Now, Ambrosi attacks him for doing just that. This is not leadership. It is institutional retaliation. It tells every member of our union: if you think independently, even if you follow the rules, you will be punished.
Ambrosi’s Reckless Political Messaging
Ambrosi didn’t just target Anderson. He also attacked the sitting U.S. President, Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, and several congressional allies of labor. By dragging the union into a partisan fight, Ambrosi squandered ALPA’s political capital. His statement comparing Anderson unfavorably to Captain Sully Sullenberger ignored the full record: Anderson’s 20,000 hours in the cockpit, his military leadership, his union accomplishments.Rather than engaging with the nomination respectfully, Ambrosi used the moment to settle a personal score—and in doing so, weakened ALPA’s standing in Washington and on the global stage.Historical Populism and HypocrisyALPA’s history on age policy is deeply inconsistent:
Today, under Ambrosi, ALPA once again reverses course—not out of principle, but under pressure from populist factions within the union. This flip-flopping is not leadership. It’s reactive, divisive, and destructive.
What This Means for Pilots
ALPA is no longer acting as a steward of unity or professional integrity. It has become a weaponized tool of internal politics, where conformity is rewarded and dissent is punished.The ICAO ambassadorship is not about age. It’s about restoring U.S. leadership in international aviation. Ambrosi’s actions turned a chance for unity into a spectacle of division.Pilots deserve better than this.
The Path Forward: New Leadership Now!
It’s time to hold our union leadership accountable. Jason Ambrosi has shown he is unfit to lead.The next ALPA President must rebuild trust, defend principled dissent, and restore the union’s foundation of safety, truth, and fraternity.Let this be the beginning of a leadership reckoning. It’s time to replace the ALPA leadership that abandoned the cockpit.It’s time to send them back to the line.