Originally Posted by
DontLookDown
Factor in all the early COVID retirements, all the people who run into medical issues in their 60s and all the others who don’t want to work past 65…. And you aren’t left with too many people.
Also, it wouldn’t fix the problem. Most pilots that old are at Majors or Legacy airlines.
The shortage is regional captains and LCA.
The only thing that would possibly put a dent in the problem is if you created a “Restricted 1st Class” medical allowing people older then 65 to still fly part 121 in aircraft with less than 80 seats (or something like that).
Raising the retirement age would temporarily reduce retirements and slow regional attrition. When the retirement age was raised before, everyone said that it would only set things back a couple of years since most would leave at 62-63. The fact is that very few did, and I’d suspect that very few will if it is raised again. The overwhelming majority of pilots will take the money as long as they can.