But many drone advocates are gloomy and fear that the FAA is using safety concerns to protect pilots' jobs.
Yet he acknowledged that pilots' jobs are "certainly easier" if they needn't switch frequencies so often as they cross from one country to another.
Balpa will be working closely with the airline to ensure pilots' jobs are protected and that this difficult process is handled as professionally as possible," he said.
United, which lost $2.7 billion in the second quarter, is on a drive to cut spending and jobs, including pilots' jobs, in the wake of record prices for jet fuel, which have nearly doubled since summer 2007.
"Their maneuvering a week from the Cup, with thousands of passengers about to pour into the country, could easily be mistaken for blackmail," the newspaper wrote, pointing out that the pilots also showed little gratitude for the $3.4 billion taxpayers pumped into Air France during its money-losing years to keep it going and safeguard the pilots' jobs.
"It's a nightmare," said Kit Darby, who retired a year ago as a United pilot and runs a pilot job fair business, Air Inc.
This system puts the worker in control of the build of each car, doing less manual labor and more of a "piloting" job with the robot.
Other pilot job actions have targeted Spain's Iberia and LOT Polish Airlines.
Last fall, Christiansen played a pivotal role in hiring Rubino's 33-year-old son for the first Los Angeles port pilot job opening in more than a decade.
Kim Darby, vice president of a nationwide airline pilot job bank, suggested that after nearly reaching a settlement, both sides are now doing little more than rhetorically jockeying for position.
