Reeling In the Years

Canada, New Zealand, and Australia have no age limits for pilots. Japan has increased its mandatory pilot retirement age to 68. The United States and most European countries have maintained a pilot age limit of 60-years—though some E.U. member states have filed for exemption requests.

1944’s Convention on International Civil Aviation, known also as the Chicago Convention, established the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and set down the foundational basis upon which contemporary air transport regulation and orthodoxy are based. In 1963, ICAO raised the mandatory retirement age for commercial pilots from 45-years—as laid down in 1919, when people died in droves of maladies and injuries now considered minor—to 60-years. In 2006, the age limit was raised to 65-years—albeit conditionally.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has submitted a paper suggesting the removal of pilot age limits to ICAO’s leadership.

IATA’s move precedes next September’s ICAO General Assembly, a plenary meeting occurring every three years, at which member states gather to discuss and vote on new provisions germane to the regulation of international commercial aviation.

The IATA paper reads in part: “With demand for air travel anticipated to return to [pre-pandemic] traffic levels in 2023, and then continue on an upward growth path, the demand for commercial pilots is expected to exceed supply. It is therefore timely to revisit legacy age limitation requirements to ensure that they remain fit for purpose, do not represent an unjustified barrier to employment for these critical workers, and do [not] constitute de facto age discrimination.”

Whether or not the pilot shortage to which IATA alludes is fact or fiction is a matter of opinion. Data recently presented by the Federal Aviation Administration chronicles the certification of 8,823 new commercial pilots in the last 12 months—a robust sum statistically consistent with 21st Century pilot certification norms. The Airline Pilots Association International (ALPA), too, asserts claims of a pilot shortage are apocryphal. ALPA’s Economic and Financial Analysis team, after examining the number of pilots currently employed by the seven largest all-passenger air-carriers with which the union has dealings, determined subject airlines—despite operating almost nine-percent fewer block-hours than they did prior to the pandemic—now employ 6.5% more pilots.

ALPA president Capt. Joe DePete remarked: “Once again, the data demonstrates that the United States is producing a record number of pilots. However, there are still some in the industry that continue to mislead the public about pilot supply to cover up bad business decisions and their attempts to negatively impact aviation safety.”

FMI: www.iata.org