Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with&nbsp;New Jersey Monthly&nbsp;magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.

Senior Editor

Gregory Polek

A pair of long-awaited pilot contracts finally reached the ratification stage when Appleton, Wis.-based United Express affiliate Air Wisconsin and Alaska Airlines subsidiary Horizon Air each closed collective-bargaining negotiations with their respective pilot unions. Air Wisconsin, for its part, reached a tentative labor agreement with the Air Line Pilots Association over the weekend of August 11 and 12, narrowly averting a strike that could have severely disrupted United Airlines’ feed to Denver and Chicago. In an effort to avoid “customer confusion” in the event of a strike, Air Wisconsin canceled more than 70 weekend flights on Friday, August 10, as airline executives met with ALPA representatives and National Mediation Board officials to avoid a walkout at 12:01 EDT on August 12. In contract talks for the past two years, Air Wisconsin’s pilots had sought a pay raise averaging some 25 percent. ALPA leaders said they would release the terms of the deal to the some 600 Air Wisconsin pilots during the third week of August, after which time the pilots will vote for or against ratification. 
The Air Wisconsin settlement came some two weeks after Horizon reached a tentative agreement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on a contract for its 700 pilots. The settlement, reached after more than three years of bargaining, goes to a ratification vote after Horizon’s bargaining committee presents its work to the rest of the pilots based in various cities in the Northwest. “This contract is the best in the regional airline industry,” said Teamsters airline division representative Don Treichler. “It’s got the best industry wages and work rules and sets a new industry standard.” As in the case of Air Wisconsin, the Horizon pilots negotiation committee earlier in the year won a strike authorization vote from its membership. Bargaining under National Mediation Board mediation lasted into the early morning hours on the morning of July 27 before the sides finally reached an agreement.

Air Wisconsin, Horizon Reach Tentative Pilot Pacts

A pair of long-awaited pilot contracts finally reached the ratification stage when Appleton, Wis.-based United Express affiliate Air Wisconsin and Alaska A

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