The news that the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has denied Republic Airways' request to offer 750 hours of training instead of the required 1,500 to prepare regional airline pilots for the right seat has sparked an interesting debate. Republic argued that the quality of its training would be comparable to military flight training and that it had the data to prove as much. The FAA disagreed insisting that it was in the public interest to maintain current standards. The nation's Regional Airline Association (RAA) was for the proposal and yet the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA) and the Flight Schools Association of North America (FSANA) were dead set against it. At the very least, Republic's petition to the FAA is prompting a debate about what constitutes the best metric for good training. Is it the quantity of flight hours alone (1,500 hours) along with earning an Air Transport Pilot (ATP) certificate and taking initial training with a regional airline - or is it the quality of training?
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