Older pilots should be allowed to keep flying passenger planes, Senate Transportation Committee chairman says

By Alexandra Skores, CNN

Washington (CNN) — Pilots of commercial planes should be allowed to keep flying until they are 67 years old, Sen. Ted Cruz, the Chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committee, said in a letter to the White House urging them to support a new international standard.

Tuesday, the International Civil Aviation Organization will discuss increasing the worldwide age limit to 67 at their general assembly in Montreal.

Right now, both the United States and ICAO, which is part of the United Nations and regulates international flights, require pilots to retire when they reach 65.

“Not all senior citizens are created equal,” Cruz wrote in the letter sent Friday. “Aviation safety is of paramount importance, which is why the most experienced pilots should be permitted to keep working.”

The mandatory pilot retirement age of 65 years old has long been a topic of discussion among aviation officials and lawmakers. Cruz said other countries find the retirement age to be “arbitrary” and “unnecessary,” citing the evolution of health and lifespan of the population.

The International Air Transport Association, the trade group which represents airlines, petitioned ICAO for the increase in age.

“The proposed increase to age 67 years is a cautious but reasonable step consistent with safety,” they said, noting when the age was increased from 60 to 65 in 2006 there was no increase in problems. IATA also cited Australia, New Zealand and Canada which do not have maximum age limits for pilots.

Aviation unions oppose the change, saying older pilots could compromise safety.

“The United States is the global leader in aviation safety, and we should resist any attempts to arbitrarily make changes to the regulatory framework that has helped us achieve this record,” the Air Line Pilots Association, the largest pilots’ union in the world, said in August. “That’s why Congress rejected making a change to the pilot retirement age just last year.”

The Allied Pilots Association, which represents pilots at American Airlines, said cognitive performance and health declines with age and there is not enough research on risks associated with older pilots.

“Existing regulations governing pilot duty and rest are based on safety studies for a workforce capped at age 65 and reflect lessons learned from past accidents. Without new research, raising the retirement age would mean flying blind,” the Union’s President Nick Silva said in a statement in August.

The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association declined to comment to CNN for this report.

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