Capt. Lee Moak, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l, wrote to members of Congress, asking them to oppose a request by the U.S. Export-Import Bank to allow its lending limit to be extended beyond its current $100 billion limit in a year-end omnibus bill. “The bank’s request should not be considered until a comprehensive debate on the merits of the lending cap and, even more broadly, on how the bank operates with respect to aircraft financing, can be held in Congress,” said Moak.

The ALPA president added, “We believe that the bank should be operating with more transparency, especially as its financing relates to aircraft transactions, which make up approximately half of the bank’s lending capacity.”

This action follows the Association’s recent effort to bar the bank from providing millions in U.S. taxpayer dollars to guarantee financing for Air India to purchase a large number of aircraft. On November 29, ALPA was granted permission to intervene in a lawsuit brought by Airlines for America, which requested a U.S. District Court to enjoin the U.S. Export-Import Bank from making financial guarantees for Air India for the purchase of new aircraft.

ALPA asserts that the bank’s loan-subsidy program harms U.S. airlines and their workers by allowing foreign airlines like Air India to acquire aircraft for substantially less than U.S. airlines would have to pay.

Supplementing Moak’s correspondence, uniformed ALPA pilots are on Capitol Hill this week, educating legislators about the Air India deal and its implications for U.S. taxpayers.

Read Moak’s letter in its entirety.