Pilots Fight against Mandatory Retirement Laws

Article, Dallas Morning News, Match 24, 2005

In many industries, employees can choose when they want to retire. Many employees choose to retire later because they are still able to work and are worried that they might outlive their pensions. In the airline industry, pilots don't have that luxury. Current laws prohibit pilots from flying after they turn sixty years old.

Pilots are fighting back. They think that there are better measures of a pilot's ability to fly safely than his age. The Professional Pilots Federation is pushing to change the current mandatory retirement laws to give more retirement flexibility to pilots. They're arguing that as long as a pilot can pass the required skill and physical tests, they should be allowed to fly at any age.

There are other pilot unions and industry experts who disagree with the Professional Pilots Federation. They maintain that other at-risk professions are also forced to retire at a certain age, such as air-traffic controllers and firefighters. A spokesperson for these groups mentioned that the risk associated with these jobs is just too high to take any chances with the mandatory retirement age. Another official also claimed that in order to get the law changed, a study would have to show that those over 60 were just as capable as those under 60 to fly airplanes. He didn't think any study could prove that theory.

One of the reasons that different pilot unions disagree on this issue is that forced retirement keeps younger pilots happy. With each retirement generally comes the promotion of a younger pilot.

There are currently two bills in Congress that propose raising the pilot retirement age to 65. This age coincides with the year when social security benefits kick in.