BRUSSELS, 5 Dec 2024 – Captain Tanja Harter has been elected as the first female president of the European Cockpit Association (ECA), marking a historic milestone for the organisation that represents over 40,000 professional pilots across 33 European countries.
With more than 25 years of experience as a professional pilot, Captain Harter currently flies the A320 family for Lufthansa and is a seasoned CRM instructor and licensed business coach. She has served on the ECA Executive Board since 2018, contributing significantly to pilot training and safety initiatives, including authoring key documents like the Pilot Training Compass and Future Airline Pilot Profession.
She has been a key representative in various EASA initiatives, including the Return to Normal Operations Task Force during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Expert Group on Extended Minimum Crew Operations. Captain Harter has also played a prominent role in international aviation, including work with ICAO and IFALPA.
In her inaugural remarks, Captain Harter raised concerns about the aviation industry’s approach to safety, warning against removing critical protections: “Aviation today is safe because we’ve built multiple safety layers over time – each one born from hard lessons learned. But I see concerning trends where these layers are being stripped away or treated as negotiable. Discussions around reducing training, extending check intervals, cutting rest periods, and prolonging duty hours may not have an immediate impact, but they weaken the foundation of safety. It’s like a Jenga tower – each removal destabilizes the structure until it eventually collapses.”
She added, “Those safety measures exist for a reason, and maintaining them takes hard work from everyone in the system. Complacency is not an option.”
European pilots welcome Captain Harter and look forward to the direction her leadership will bring.
ECA is the representative body of over 40,000 pilots from across Europe, striving for the highest levels of aviation safety and fostering social rights and quality employment for pilots in Europe.
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