RACCA Favors Increase in Retirement Age

The Regional Air Cargo Carriers Association (RACCA) submitted comments to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) favoring an increase in the pilot retirement age to more than 60 years old. Sent to the Age 60 Aviation Rulemaking Committee, established last September, RACCA called for an increase in the mandatory retirement age for airline pilots, citing the overall improvement in life expectancy and health since the rule was put in place in 1960. It noted statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control show an average increase in life expectancy of more than five years, RACCA said, with significantly greater increases if statistics for earlier periods are included. Raising the age would ease the “acute shortage of qualified entry-level pilots” while “allowing more time for the knowledge and experience of those at intermediate levels to mature.”