I was reading a thread about future retirements on another forum, and it dawned on me... Over 1,800 pilots were suppose to retire from American, United, Delta, Continental, Northwest, Southwest, FedEx, and UPS in 2008 alone. This was before age 65 passed. How many did actually retire? Very few. Another 1,800 pilots were suppose to retire in 2009. We could have had almost "zero" furloughs if age 65 had not been passed.
If you are sitting at home, furloughed from your job, you can thank someone that supported the age 65 legislation.
I believe everyone that is furloughed, except a few cargo carriers, realized that age 65 legislation created a perfect storm. Economy tankering and no real retirements in the industry resulted in furloughs.
Unfortunately, while I am about to be affected by this storm, it is what it is. We have 3 1/2 years, roughly, to go till age 65 takes full affect. Long yes for the guys on the street, but not really long relative for furloughs. American has had guys on furlough for 8 years.
I do think, I have talked to various pilots, that some will choose to retire before age 65. There will be a portion that will not be able to retain their medicals. Their will be attrition, albiet alot less. Plus the economy will recover, hopefully.
I wish everyone who has been furloughed best wishes. I know its hard but we will prevail and if we desire we should be able to return to the cockpit in the not to distant future.
I was reading a thread about future retirements on another forum, and it dawned on me... Over 1,800 pilots were suppose to retire from American, United, Delta, Continental, Northwest, Southwest, FedEx, and UPS in 2008 alone. This was before age 65 passed. How many did actually retire? Very few. Another 1,800 pilots were suppose to retire in 2009. We could have had almost "zero" furloughs if age 65 had not been passed.
If you are sitting at home, furloughed from your job, you can thank someone that supported the age 65 legislation.
Wait! So you're suggesting the guys at the top sold out the guys at the bottom?! That sounds unheard of and unproductive! Oh wait...
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Wait! So you're suggesting the guys at the top sold out the guys at the bottom?! That sounds unheard of and unproductive! Oh wait...
The majority of pilots were against Age 65, but the majority of Unions were for it. Shouldn't be surprising that they wanted to keep around the heavy hitters in terms of pay for another 5 years, that's that much more dues money. And I AM a card carrying Union member, but nobody's perfect, and their behavior in the 65 legislation is a great example.
This is from a statement from Woerth back in 2005 before the Senate about a survey;
"The results of the survey show that a majority of ALPA pilots favor maintaining the Age 60 Rule. Consider the following statistics from the survey:
When asked in a straight-forward yes or no format, “Do you favor changing the FAA Age 60 Rule?” 56% of ALPA pilots support maintaining the current rule; 42% want it to change.
When we asked pilots specifically about changing the rule to age 65, support for maintaining the current rule rose to 58% and support for change dropped to 39%.
The more specific we got, the fewer pilots supported change. When given a series of options and asked which they would most support, 54% support the current rule, while only 10% support increasing the age limit to 62, and only 22% support increasing it to 65. Further, fewer than 10% support the option of changing the rule to one that measures physical ability and health on an individual basis, regardless of age. And, fewer than 5% support increasing the age limit to higher than age 65 (2%) or lifting the age limit completely (3%)."
dont worry guys when the guys reach 65 and start to retire, cabotage (sp?) and MPLS will be in full swing...............
Another reason to have min experience language in contracts. Some don't realize that something like severance is missing until it's too late, and that MPLS-whatever ticket could be the next thing that mgt loves cheaper labor.
Once age 65 became the rule for ICAO it was going to happen in the US. No way around it period. There was no court challange that could have stopped it. The real impact of 65 will be to delay advancement about 2 years not 5. Historically 50% of pilot either went early or lost their medical prior to 60.
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