President Bush on Dec. 13 signed into law a new mandatory retirement age for pilots. Now commercial pilots can stay on the job until they’re 65.
The Fair Treatment for Experienced Pilots Act allows both the pilot and copilot to be up to 65 years old on domestic commercial flights. However, commercial pilots flying internationally must still abide by the International Civil Aviation Organization standard set in 2006. This requires at least one of the pilots to be under age 60.
“While the mandatory retirement age isn’t a core AOPA issue, we have been following this because pilot age discrimination is one of our concerns,” said AOPA President Phil Boyer.
Congress stepped in to increase the retirement age earlier this year after the FAA proposed raising it to 65 in January.
The previous mandatory retirement age, 60, had been in effect since 1959.
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