This is Bob Gray with the May 10, 2012 INFOline.

Safety and Compliance
During the last week of April, I had the pleasure of attending a Fatigue Risk Management Symposium in Washington D.C. along with our Director of Safety, Steve Janasov. The Symposium was sponsored by Airlines for America and the Cargo Airlines Association with the purpose of bringing together airline operators, safety and labor representatives, along with regulators and fatigue experts to explore the best fatigue management practices to date. Speakers included Mark Rosekind from the NTSB, Dale Roberts from AFS-200, Dr. Melissa Mallis and Leigh White from Alertness Solutions Inc., and managers of major airline fatigue programs. Steve and I quickly came to realize that the ABX FRMP is one of the better ones in operation today. That said, the symposium was a great learning experience, and we’ll be incorporating some of the lessons learned along with some pertinent scientific data into our program in the near future.

In other regulatory news, Rex Gunning reports that the requirement to perform age 60 line checks for our pilots who are age 60 and over is no longer necessary. When the pilot mandatory retirement age was raised to age 65, Congress also required that any pilot who chose to continue flying past age 60 had to have an additional line check over and above those mandatory for other crewmembers. A recent notice from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration removes the requirement for a line check every 6 months for pilots serving in a 121 operation who had attained age 60. We needed to receive approval for a revision to our Training Manual that removed the age 60 line check requirement before we could take advantage of the change. Captains age 60 and over will still require an annual line check.

Employee Recognition
Last week, it was my pleasure to present to Rex the ABX Air Gold Wings of Excellence for his outstanding contributions to the Company. During the past few years, there have been many ABX employees that have excelled above expectations, and who could have qualified for this award, but after careful consideration, Rex was determined to be at the top of the list.

As a result of his efforts in coordinating the many audits and inspections that we experienced, ABX Air successfully returned to the fast growing Asia marketplace. His efforts and dedication in meeting the requirements of our customers and the regulatory authorities – despite the language and cultural barriers – truly reflects our Company values of Teamwork, Customer Satisfaction, and Quality. Our return to intra-Asia flying, demonstrates to the marketplace that we can operate reliably, safely, and dependably on the other side of the world. And this helps us build our business in a key marketplace for the Company. Congratulations, Rex, and thank you for everything that you do for our Company.

Congratulations to the following people who are celebrating anniversaries with ABX: Joe Stuber - 35 years; Bob Moser - 25 years; those celebrating 20 years include Bart Blum, Capt. David Chaffin, Capt. Craig Griffis, Allan Kopack, and Capt. David Ross; and celebrating 15 years are Russell Leighton, Michael McDonough, and William Pitchford.

That’s all for this week. Thanks to all of you for your work at making ABX successful.