Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, REPORTS—Lactating airline crewmembers lack options for expressing breast milk on duty, (May 20, 2025)

By Patricia K. Ruiz, J.D.

While federal law generally protects workers’ rights to express breast milk, airline crewmembers are excluded from those protections.

A report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) details barriers to lactating employees in the airline industry, including protections and accommodations to support the need to express breast milk. The report also discusses barriers to expressing breast milk and how airlines have addressed potential safety implications of airlines’ lactation accommodations.

Protections and barriers. While leading health organizations recommend that lactating parents breastfeed for at least 12 months, flight attendants and pilots may not have enough time or private space to express breast milk while on duty. Federal law generally protects workers’ rights to breastfeed or express milk in the workplace, but the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act expressly excludes airline crewmembers from its protections, leaving crewmembers to depend on the lactation accommodations provided by their employers.

Labor unions representing airline crewmembers said that crewmembers face barriers to expressing breast milk upon returning to work, including only being allowed to pump during noncritical phases of flight or between flights, neither of which may provide sufficient time. Other barriers include lack of space on the aircraft to properly express breast milk, lack of necessary refrigeration for storing and transporting breast milk, and stigma associated with breastfeeding.

FAA guidance document. In January 2025, FAA issued an informational document to airlines identifying its regulations, procedures, and guidance applicable to onboard pumping, including how airlines can determine the safety of wearable breast pumps. It advises airlines to consider and assess potential safety risks, including effects on crewmembers’ ability to carry out their safety duties and whether pumps using wireless technology may interfere with the aircraft’s navigation and communications systems.

Employer accommodations; policies. Under Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations, pilots at large U.S.-based airlines may be scheduled for flight time of up to eight hours, while flight attendants may be on duty for as long as 14 hours. Crewmembers who are lactating may need to express breast milk while on duty. Depending on the rules of the crewmember’s employer, a lactating crewmember may be able to use wearable, battery-operated breast pumps while in flight. Between flights, a lactating crewmember may also pump in airport lactation facilities or take extended leave to delay the return to work after childbirth, according to representatives of airlines interviewed by the GAO.

The GAO found that three of the eight largest airlines have applied their existing risk management processes to assess safety risks associated with crewmembers’ use of breast pumps and to establish policies to address the identified risks. Such policies include requiring that breast pumps be wearable and hands-free and that crewmembers not use the pumps during certain flight times, such as takeoff and landing. One airline reported to the GAO that they had used FAA’s informational document to update their internal practices, and three other airlines reported that they were planning to do so. The eighth airline reported that they do not allow crewmembers to express breast milk while on flight duty.

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