United Airlines Capt. Wendy Morse serves as ALPA’s first vice president and national safety coordinator. She is the first woman to serve as an ALPA national officer and brings more than 35 years of union experience to her role. She exemplifies a “see it, be it” leadership role model for girls and young women entering aviation—particularly the piloting profession, as women make up only 5 percent of today’s airline pilot population.
As national safety coordinator, Capt. Morse oversees the Association’s Air Safety Organization (ASO), the world’s largest nongovernmental aviation safety organization. With a team of more than 425 of the union’s pilot representatives, she leads the ASO, which operates the union’s safety, security, pilot assistance, and jumpseat programs. The ASO also advocates to advance and protect airline pilots’ aviation interests on Capitol and Parliament Hills as well as throughout the world.
Over her term as first vice president, the current aviation safety and security landscape could change systemically, as regulators in the United States and around the globe define aviation standards for the new era. These opportunities include how airline pilots safely share the airspace with new entrants, such as spacecraft, drones, and electric vertical lift operators; how operators design and regulators certify new aircraft and pilot training programs; and how governments invest in aviation’s aging infrastructure, to name a few.
The union’s Board of Directors elected Capt. Morse on Oct. 19, 2022, and she began her four-year term on Jan. 1, 2023. Based in Chicago, Ill., she is a Boeing 787 pilot and previously served United pilots in a multitude of leadership roles, including as the Master Executive Council chair, a member of the United Airlines Board of Directors, a local council officer, and a variety of committee posts.
Under her leadership and Negotiating Committee participation, the United pilots navigated various defining moments, from the industry-leading United pilot contract in 2000 and the bankruptcy-era negotiations that followed post 9/11 to merger talks with Continental Airlines, also during contract negotiations. The news media has described Capt. Morse as the “consummate insider with a detailed knowledge of the labor issues separating the union and management, and the political skills to broker deals.”
Prior to United, Capt. Morse was a pilot for Precision Airlines and served as a corporate pilot and flight instructor. She earned a bachelor of professional studies in commercial aviation degree from Memphis State University. She resides in South Elgin, Ill., with her husband.