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Originally Posted by btimbit
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Quote:
Originally Posted by btimbit
Well I'd be curious to see what people in the industry on CP have to say, as the aviation industry is something I've really only just dipped a toenail into at this point.
So I'll avoid getting too anecdotal, but I've been reading pilot's reaction to this and there's been quite a few stories shared about babysitting an old guy who has no business being in the cockpit anymore. The health tests also don't test mental function, they're just physicals
My understanding is a lot of the pilot shortage is almost artificial. Like most labour shortages that the media talks about, the places that are struggling are the ones that pay poorly and/or treat people like crap. Regionals that pay $50k a year seem to be the ones struggling to retain pilots, whereas where these old 60+ year old pilots are flying are largely legacy carriers, they have no shortages.
Plus if it really was something they wanted to address, they could always remove some of the entry barriers and/or subsidize training, like every other industry would. Raising the max-age seems like a solution in search of a problem
(Plus the purely selfish angle: Get out of my way, boomers)
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Have seen some interesting posts on X by pilots. One that stuck out to me in particular made the observation that it would become very messy and expensive (at least short term) for US airlines if the age were raised to 67. His points were summarized as follows:
1. Age 67 rule would only apply to US, those pilots would not be legal to fly in other countries anyhow.
2. US airlines would need to build schedules to take this into account. ie cannot assign international flying to pilots >65.
3. Generally speaking senior pilots at the US airlines are the ones flying widebody international routes. They would not be able to do this past 65 regardless.
4. would require training (ie $$$) late in the careers of these pilots to transition back to aircraft that normally do most domestic flying.