Posted on Thu, Feb. 07, 2008
Law change has airlines seeking retired pilots
By TREBOR BANSTETTER
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Travelers may soon notice more gray hair in airplane cockpits when they board their flights, thanks to a wave of recently retired pilots trading in their beach chairs for seats on the flight deck.
A recent change in federal law, which raised the mandatory retirement age for commercial pilots from 60 to 65, means that some retired pilots can return to the skies. Airlines, facing a growing pilot shortage, are beginning to recruit retired pilots who are younger than 65.
"There are lot of pilots who love flying. It's an absolute passion for them, and they may be interested in coming back," said Brandy King, a spokeswoman for Dallas-based Southwest Airlines. "So we want to give them that opportunity."
The change, which Congress approved in December, came as many newly retired pilots were adjusting to living with far less retirement income than they had planned during their careers. The termination of most airline pension plans cut deeply into pilot nest eggs, forcing some to turn to nonflying jobs to bring in more money.
"Many of these pilots are living on just 25 to 30 percent of what they thought they were going to have," said Kit Darby, a pilot and president of consulting firm Air Inc., which helps pilots with career decisions. "So they're a needy group, and some of them are going to jump at the chance to go back to flying."
According to Air Inc., retired pilots have been interviewed for jobs at Delta Air Lines, Southwest and Eos Airlines, which flies between New York and London.
Fort Worth-based American Airlines has no plans right now to recruit retired pilots, spokeswoman Sue Gordon said. American still has more than 2,000 pilots on furlough, who are first in line for new jobs.
Southwest created a team to contact retired pilots who are still young enough to fly, and interviews will begin this month. King said there are about 200 retired Southwest pilots eligible to return.
Pilots who want to come back would go through a two-week interview process and then undergo additional training before returning to flight duties. "It would be all the things that a new pilot does," King said.
But there are drawbacks. The law mandates that retirees who return to their old jobs must be placed on the bottom of airline seniority lists and treated the same as new hires. That means retired captains will come back as first officers, and they will likely earn less than before they retired.
They will also fly smaller airplanes and won't get to pick the choice routes.
"That could be frustrating for some pilots who were at the peak of their careers," flying as captains on the biggest airplanes and earning the largest paychecks, Darby said.
Still, he added, many older pilots may still choose to resume flying, particularly if they're already working to augment their retirement income.
The new pool of veteran pilots comes as the industry is struggling with a growing shortage of pilots. Many regional airlines have slashed their hiring requirements during the past year to meet the demand for new pilots, and some, including American Eagle, have had to adjust flight schedules because of fewer pilots.
That's why "every airline is looking at this right now, and at some point I think all of them are going" to be recruiting retired pilots, Darby said. "It's a group with a lot of experience, and a lot of them want to come back."
Share of Southwest (ticker:
LUV) finished at 11.96, up 25 cents in trading Wednesday. Shares of AMR Corp., American's parent company (
AMR) finished at $15.25 per share, up 61 cents.
TREBOR BANSTETTER, 817-390-7064
tbanstetter@star-telegram.com
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