Don’t raise pilots’ retirement age, García says

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From staff reports

U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D-4th), senior member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, recently led a letter joined by 121 Members of Congress urging House Democratic leadership to reject any changes to the pilot retirement age in a final version of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill.

As it stands currently, the House version of the bill included a provision to increase the pilot retirement age from 65 to 67 years old, while the Senate bill did not include any changes to the retirement age.

U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D-4th)

As negotiations proceed between the House and Senate on a final FAA bill, the letter asks House Democratic leadership to reject attempts to change the pilot retirement age. In the letter, the members outline the impacts of raising the retirement age on labor contracts, safety and compliance with international standards.

During floor consideration of the House FAA reauthorization bill, Rep. García co-led an amendment with more than three dozen other Members to remove the statutory change to the pilot retirement age that was added during the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee markup of the bill.

“We implore you to consider the adverse impacts of raising the pilot retirement age. This action would have consequences across the aviation industry, including placing airlines in noncompliance with the international safety standard, requiring hard fought collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) to be reopened, creating flight operation difficulties and training complications, and reducing pilot utilization,” the members wrote. 

“Significant changes to U.S. aviation policy, especially ones that have consequential implications to both international aviation safety standards and airline operations, should not be enacted against the wishes of our own regulatory bodies. As both chambers work together to reach an agreement on differences between their respective bills, we urge you to support the Senate position on pilot retirement age and reject any provision related to the pilot retirement age,” the members continued.

The full text of the letter is below.