Age 60 To 65 Rule - Effects Of The New Airline Pilot Retirement Age On Air Taxi And Mid Level Pilots

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The mandatory retirement age for airline pilots has been changed from age 60 to age 65 with the passage of bill H.R. 4343. The House of Representatives passed the bill on Dec 11th, the Senate on Dec 13th and President Bush quickly signed it into law late on Dec 13th. Why did the bill pass? Simple statistics.

The FAA estimates that there were 144,681 Airline Transport Pilots (ATP) in the US as of Dec 31, 2006. Over 13% of ATPs were between 55 and 59 years of age and over 15% were between 50 and 54 years of age. Keeping the mandatory retirement age at 60 would mean airlines would be losing their most experienced pilots at a rate of almost 3% per year for the next ten years at a time when the FAA expects passenger traffic to increase by 4% annually. A statistical analysis of the mandatory retirement age makes the Age-65 rule a no-brainer. But how will this new law affect air taxi?

First let’s realize that some airline pilots will want to retire before age 65 so we’ll still have some attrition there. Also we should consider that older pilots are the most highly paid segment of the pilot group so keeping them around longer will raise labor costs for airlines. Ultimately airline ticket costs will rise in lock-step. Had the age-60 Rule remained in effect there would be options for retiring airline pilots to pursue their flying passion as air taxi pilots or Mentor pilots. This could have been a way to mitigate the pilot shortage but now it looks like that door is closed. The air taxi industry must get its experienced pilots by offering better incentives to mid level pilots than the airlines trying to retain them. This will lead to price wars for qualified Captains of all ages. The Captains most likely to jump ship will be those in the age range between 30 and 45 years. Airlines will offer them incentives to stay and that will also raise the price of airline tickets.

Next let’s look at the plight of the pilots between ages of 30 and 45. These are the pilots who have been most adversely affected by the recent turmoil in the airline industry. They have been furloughed two or three times because of airline bankruptcies and consolidations. They have lost their Captain seats and been pushed back to the right seats of airliners, suffered big pay cuts and lost pension benefits. They are adversely affected by the age 65-Rule because now it will take them 5 more years to reach the golden seniority numbers that will assure them good quality of life scheduling options. They have only been on their current company seniority list for a short time so they would not be losing a promising place in line if they leave that company. These pilots are more energetic and more accepting of new technology than their seniors. They make for better instructors because they have not lost the connection to the younger generation. This age group will be the most sought after by airlines, training academies and air taxi companies. They have been dealt the aviation wild card, and they have many options in how to play their hand. Opportunities abound in business aviation from flight instruction or mentoring in a VLJ to owning and operating their own jet for hire. The airline career has lost much of its luster for these pilots so it will take very hefty bonus packages to keep them flying red-eye schedules.

Changing the mandatory retirement age puts a band-aid on the pilot shortage but it will create a flurry of job shifting in mid level pilots. The dust will probably settle in about 5 years when the beneficiaries of the recent law change will again be ready to retire. We won’t be able to change the retirement age to 70 at that time so I hope we’ll be ready with a fresh batch of younger pilots to take their place.

href="http://transportation.house.gov/news/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=402">Arguments supporting href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.4343:">H.R. 4343

href="http://www.faa.gov/data_statistics/aviation_data_statistics/civil_airmen_statistics/2006/">FAA statistics

Roger Burton studied Computer Science at Oregon State University. He has flown the A-4 Skyhawk and AV-8B Harrier for the U.S. Marine Corps where he participated in Desert Storm. After honorable separation from the Marine Corps he started his civilian flying career as a flight instructor and charter pilot in Orange County California, (CFI/CFII/MEI/ATP). Roger flew the CRJ for Atlantic Coast Airlines and the Boeing 757 for American Trans Air but was furloughed from both jobs due to the turmoil caused by the events of 9/11. Roger created Taxijet.com to help the fledgling air taxi industry take flight and is working to assist small partnership air taxi owner operators with certification and operational necessities.

Book a trip at: href="http://www.taxijet.com/">Taxijet.com

Tags: Age-60, Age-65, Air Charter, Air Taxi, aviation, Corporate Travel, Mandatory Retirement, Private Jet, Rule

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