Originally Posted by Whacker77

I must have been asleep when the debate about age 65 took place a few years ago, but it certainly snuck up on me. It seems as though it happened without a shot being fired. I admit, I wasn't paying much attention though.

Maybe this has been hashed over a hundred times, but did the FAA, ALPA, or any other group consider phasing in the age 65 rule? Had they first gone to 62 and then bumped it up to 65 over a period of time, might that have been a little easier on the various pilot groups?

This just my own view, but I think the new age limit came along at the worst possible time for the industry. Had the good economic times continued, maybe the this new rule would have been little more than a bump in the road, but it came at the start of the worst recession since the 1930's.

I think the age 65 rule is fine, but did it gum up the works and lead to furloughs that may not have happened otherwise? Of course, the pilots hitting 60 would have been out of the game, but maybe furloughs at the bottom wouldn't have been so large.

I don't know, I'm just tossing the idea out there.