Air Transport

US Federal Aviation Administration administrator Marion Blakey today is expected to unveil a timetable to formally propose an increase in the mandatory retirement age of domestic commercial pilots to 65 years.

Under a programme expected to be announced today at a scheduled luncheon in Washington, DC, Blakey will reconvene an advisory panel of industry and government officials to collect more data on updating the USA’s retirement rules to match those now held by ICAO. That panel has already failed to reach a consensus on the subject.

Despite that failure, it appears Blakey is to proceed with the so-called Age 65 rule, which will allow one commercial pilot to be aged between 60 and 65 as long as the other pilot is below 60. Current US law limits both pilots’ age to 60.

That FAA notice of proposed rulemaking is not expected until later this year, and may not be enacted until 2008.

The FAA was not available for comment.