About 75 percent of U.S. flight attendants currently benefit from competency-based training programs, compared with 90 percent of airline pilots, says an official representing the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) advanced qualification program (AQP). The numbers of cabin crewmembers trained this way, however, surpass the totals for flight crewmembers. Flexibility of training design and measurable improvements in crew performance during normal line operations and emergencies have been cited as reasons for the growing professional appreciation of the competency-based approach.
Doug Farrow, AQP program manager, FAA Voluntary Safety Programs Branch, told the World Aviation Training Conference and Tradeshow (WATS 2015) in Orlando, Florida, U.S., in April that U.S. airlines’ embrace of the concept of customizing their flight attendants’ initial and continuing qualification (CQ) began in 2005.
“We have a traditional training rule and a competency-based training rule, and …
