ICAO/FAA Set to Approve Age 68 Retirement
 

The International Civil Air Organization (ICAO) recently published on their website the proposed Commercial Air Transport (CAT) medical standards review and Flight Time and Duty Period Limits (FTL) for pilots over age 65.

These new standards were introduced at the follow-on international ICAO/EASA Pilots’ Age Limit Increase Workshop was held on May 7, 2019.

The meetings had more than 60 participants with more than 25 nationalities represented. Key participants and sponsors included the ICAO, the IATA, the European Union's EASA, the U.S. FAA, China CAA, Japan CAA, New Zealand CAA; as well as leaders from other countries.

Other key stakeholders included pilot associations, medical societies, HEMS, and operators of both fixed & rotary wing aircraft.
ICAO's Working Group is scheduled to meet this month to finalize the new Commercial Air Transport (CAT) worldwide pilot age limit standards, the specific increase to the mandatory pilot retirement age, they will finalize the new medical testing requirements, and decide on the exact reduction to the FTL for those pilots over age 65.
Specifically:

· An increase in the pilot age limit above 65 for multi pilot CAT operations; however, pilots flying over age 65 will require additional risk-mitigation measures (aeromedical testing). These measures will likely include testing to support an aeromedical decision on the applicant’s fitness on an individual basis, which must be imposed.

These measures could include an ophthalmologist examination, auditory or hearing testing, cardiovascular/lipid testing (bloodwork), and cognitive testing (additional checkride) for those pilots who conduct CAT flying over age 65 (for U.S. pilots these tests will be conducted in addition to FAA Class I certificate requirements).

· A reduction of the maximum monthly/yearly FTL to 80% of the maximum allowed for pilots over 65 performing CAT multi pilot operations (see presentation).

At the October meeting the parties will consider a final resolution to include (see presentation):

· Development of options based on the feedback from the Workshop and Medical Examiner Group (MEG), etc.

· The parties will work closely with ICAO and the International Authorities on the future steps to (simultaneously) coordinate (worldwide) actions.

· EASA high-level decision - Impact assessment will be consulted with EASA Advisory Bodies.

· Further feedback from the advisory bodies on the way forward.

In conclusion, I have been told by a top ranking official directly responsible for the new medical standards and regulations that a final decision has not yet been made. However, a Working Group representative told me it is expected that the final high-level decision following consultation and the final regulatory activities in congruence with the decision is expected to be completed with new/older mandatory retirement age to be implemented by the end of 2019 or early 2020.

These new standards and regulations will authorize CAT multi engine pilots to be permitted to fly over 65 to most likely age 68.

To access the ICAO's website to read their CAT pilot retirement age limit information click here and then click https://www.icao.int/Search/pages/re...tirement%20age on ASMA-ICAO Meeting. Slides 30, 31, & 32 discuss the conclusions and the way forward.

Or if you prefer to go directly to the presentation click https://www.icao.int/safety/aviation...%20Study_c.pdf to review the PowerPoint presentation and read slides 30, 31, & 32 for the Readers Digest version.

Finally, I believe the industry's revelation that both the Lions Air and Ethiopian Airlines accidents could have been prevented, by having more experienced pilots in the cockpits, was the final catalyst for am international regulatory decision to increase the mandatory CAT pilot retirement age above 65 -- due to a worldwide shortage of qualified pilots.

American Airlines' Flight Information Manual, Chapter 18, page 18-42, the new revision created a new section for the scheduling requirements for pilots age 65 and older.

Further reports indicate Delta Air lines will dramatically slow down pilot hiring in 2020 because of the pending increase in the mandatory commercial air transport pilot (CAT) retirement age.

This meeting was 7 months ago. Also in the U.S. it requires congress to change the law. They can’t agree on what color the sky is these days.

We pushed it 5 years and now that we are finally going to catch up we are going to push it another 3 years? Then what? Make it 75 so we can get past the big retirement bubble.

Must be nice for those guys at the top to get there with everyone retiring at 60 then live at the top forever.

[QUOTE=Qotsaautopilot;2948857]This meeting was 7 months ago. Also in the U.S. it requires congress to change the law. They can’t agree on what color the sky is these days.

We pushed it 5 years and now that we are finally going to catch up we are going to push it another 3 years? Then what? Make it 75 so we can get past the big retirement bubble.

Must be nice for those guys at the top to get there with everyone retiring at 60 then live at the top forever.

So? What about those who spent an additional 5 yrs in the right seat of the RJ because of age 65?

On March 18-19 ICAO, IATA, the FAA, EASA, and about 60 other participants met in Cologne, Germany to discuss medical findings and the Working Group's desire to increase the mandatory retirement pilot age due the worldwide shortage and lack of experience of new pilots.

The parties met again in Las Vegas on May 7, 2019 and the Working Group was tasked to have the Best Intervention Strategy (BIS) completed for Working Group and its Advisory Bodies by October 31, 2019.

This (BIS) strategy would include:

· Development of options based on the feedback from the Workshop and Medical Examiner Group (MEG), etc.

· The parties will work closely with ICAO and the International Authorities on the future steps to (simultaneously) coordinate (worldwide) actions.

· ICAO/EASA high-level decision - Impact assessment will be consulted with EASA Advisory Bodies.

· Further feedback from the advisory bodies including the FAA on the way forward.

ICAO, IATA (International Air Transport Association lobby group for evey major airline in the world), the European Union's EASA, the U.S. FAA, China CAA, Japan CAA, and New Zealand CAA all support the group.

It is expected the worldwide regulatory guidance, new medical standards, and U.S. federal law change authorized by Congress will all simultaneously occur in the beginning of 2020.

The new FAR will be: 14 CFR Part 121.383, Amendment HR 4343, FAA INFO 08001.

The ICAO regulation will be ICAO Annex 1, Para 2.11.10.1 and ICAO Annex 1, Amendment 167.

Pilots interested in the upcoming changes to the medical standards for CAT pilots over age 65 and the new regulatory guidance should click on this link:

https://www.icao.int/safety/aviation...%20Study_c.pdf

Slide 30, 31, & 32 provides more guidance on the regulatory changes for pilots flying over age 65 starting in 2020.

The Flight Time (FTL) and Flight Duty Limits (FDL) will be a reduction of the maximum monthly/yearly FTL to 80% of the maximum allowed for pilots over 65 performing multi pilot ops. For U.S. pilots operating FAR Part 121 flights with FAR Part 117 FTL & FDL limits, aviators will be permitted to fly no more than 80 block hours in a rolling 672-hour period previously introduced under FAR 117.23B1 and no more than 800 block hours per rolling year introduced under FAR 117.23B2.

back to bed. wake me when this "simultaneous action" occurs

This would be awesome! More years for me to collect long term disability before I get a social security check. Or can I collect both simultaneously? :cool:

This looks like a push from EASA, not ICAO. Wake me when Dr Ansa Jordaan publishes anything in favor of an age increase. Her predecessor, Dr Anthony Evans, published more than a few documents in favor of an age increase from 60. Dr Jordaan has been silent on any age increase since taking over in 2015.

..............

Delta has increased their hiring plans for 2020 and will hire at or near the maximum rate all year. They are locking down expensive off site simulators to support hiring in excess of 100 per month. Your info is bad.

Bad info has never stopped a good internet post.

The slide talks about an increase from age 60 to 65. I see nothing about an increase from 65 to 68.

Somebody created a new username in the wee hours of this morning, simply to copypasta a bunch of nonsense that they clearly had not themselves reviewed?

In Feb 2019 the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research did a study for EASA and concluded:

4.2.3 Age limit multi-pilot operations
Based on the outcome of Parts 1 and 2, it was concluded that allowing pilots older than 65 years in multi-pilot CAT operations would require additional risk-mitigation measures such as specific tests to support the aeromedical decision on the applicant’s fitness on an individual basis. We recommend keeping the age limit at 65 years as it is currently set by EASA (FCL.065; EASA, 2016).

The May 2019th EASA Powerpoint linked above even says, on slide 23, that the study recommends maintaining the age limit for multi-pilot operations as 65 years.

Later in the same powerpoint on slide 30 it says EASA is considering an increase in the limit beyond 65 years for multi-pilot commercial air transport operations as well as an 80% cap on FTL for pilots over 65 in multi-pilot ops, but there's an entire side after that stating "However, a final decision has not been made yet".

Makes me wonder what his angle is... And if he's the same person who posted it in the Delta forum.

Everything I posted is a fact including the ICAO PowerPoint presentations, the reference to the new age limit in American Airlines’ FOM, the new ICAO reg for above age 65 flying, and the New FAA reg, etc.

Yes the medical group contracted in 2017/18 to provide a risk assessment of flying over age 65 recommended to not increase the age limit. However, the regulators and AMEs are moving forward with the age change per the timeline I described from the different PUBLIC sources.

Expect the age change to occur simultaneously around the world in early 2020 with the change attached to a current bill in Congress.

Thanks...I’ll do just that.

Please, provide us with links to the public sources you've described, because the ones you've posted so far do not correspond with your stated conclusions.

ICAO is not EASA; as such, a link to ICAO documents would be especially helpful.

What you are suggesting is a coordinated, simultaneous, global change to the commercial air transport maximum age, across multiple regulatory bodies, happening in the next 3-4 months, when none of the major global players have publicly announced intention of such a change. And that such a change will come in the US via amendment to an existing bill, which again is different than how the change happened in December 2007...more than 10 months after the FAA publicly announced their intent to raise the mandatory retirement age in accordance with ICAO's change.

The last FAA authorization allowed no oxygen mask use up to FL410. That was 9 months ago. Still in our Ops Specs. There is no such thing as a "simultaneous change." It would have to go through NPRM at the very least.

OK, you do not seem to understand the difference between ICAO and EASA. They are quite a bit different; those are EASA presentations, not ICAO. And they're both different than the FAA and the legal process required to change the age limit in the US.

You have provided no documents indicating that an age change is on the cusp of being enacted.

I'm going to make a stab in the dark here … you turn 65 in 2020, correct?

Not happening anytime soon (in the US).

But I fully expect that we'll get to 67-68 in the US within ten years or so. I think it will be much harder to go beyond that for 121.

The rationale for age 65 doesn't change too much at age 67, and there will likely be a big political push, especially if airlines struggle to meet demand because of retirements.

Keep in mind that retirement-induced pilot shortages at the big boys probably has more to do with simulator/training capacity than age 65 itself. Creating a new source of ab initio pilots for example may not solve the problem...

If you retire a (typically very senior) guy at age 65 at a multi-fleet airline and replace him with a new guy you generate a LOT of training events across multiple fleets. In addition to sim capacity issues, you just took a bunch of pilots off line for several months. Even with a suitable noob waiting in the wings, you've still probably lost an effective man-year of pilot availability. Keeping the old guy dilutes that problem or at least kicks the can.

The industry will kick the can if they haven't come up with a better solution, and their political cronies will back them up unless there's some good high-profile reason not to.

“Kicking the can” in 2007 helped bring the industry to the quote-unquote pilot shortage operators lagging in compensation and QOL are experiencing today.

I didn't say that it was a good idea, or that it would solve the problem.

I just said they'll do it. It will help with next quarter's earnings report.

I think you're right. But if airlines were smart, they'd negotiate a more favorable pilot contract to mitigate their training constraints by throwing money at the problem. Things such as seniority based pay, or more training bypasses, longer seat locks etc.

Maybe I don't have the newest version, but I see "Upon reaching age 65, an airman certificate is no longer valid under Part 121"

I also don't see that in the revision highlights section for chapter 18. Was it previously changed?

Man, a bucket of chum in the water really started a feeding frenzy...........

I was one. Sarcasm much?

Then how come I haven’t seen one single call to action against this from Alpa?

Secondary barriers but nothing on a retirement age increase. I would think an age increase would be an important issue to members and one that we would collectively be against.

This pilot shortage is overblown. When regionals are paying rj captains $300k and not finding pilots we might have a shortage. Until then it’s just lack of pay. Time to pay up!!!

actually says 60 to 65 for single pilot
and increase for multi pilot

This! If ALPA were to be caught this flat-footed on an issue like this - I’d have a host of other questions that would need answers. The fact we haven’t heard a peep makes me skeptical there’s anything to this.

Soooo.... how does all of this square with the rumored single pilot ops within the next decade?
Both an age increase and single pilot ops are future possibilities. However, I suspect that they're mutually exclusive. And I'd expect single pilot ops to win out over an age increase.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/28/airb...lanes-cto.html

An FAA study got nixed on the last FAA reauthorization bill, but I'd expect it to continue to resurface:
https://www.aircargonews.net/technol...rization-bill/

Decades of CRM go out the window with one pilot. We and the people that regulate out jobs obviously have no idea how many mini decisions are made as a crew in a flight if they try single pilot. Did we learn nothing from captain van zanten?

Reality is no one knows. All it takes is one politician to push the issue hard and it changes the dynamics. There might be significant public pushback, no appetite for the increase. So many moving parts.

I'm not arguing in favor of either change.
Question. Which end state (single pilot OR age increase) will result in a greater cost reduction for the airlines? That's the likely solution.

If single piloted aircraft result in ticket prices that are 50 cents cheaper, that's what most passengers will opt for.

Like it or not, we've made flying so safe that fatal large commercial passenger aircraft accidents in the US over the last decade can be counted on one hand. Southwest 1380 was the last commercial passenger fatality and that was a single passenger fatality on April 17 2018. I think you have to go all the way back to Comair 5191 in April 2006 to find another passenger fatality on commercial passenger aircraft (I've excluded cargo fatalities).

Colgan 3407 but I get your point.

Thanks; I missed that one (Feb 2009) while looking through a list of aircraft accidents.

Yup. The airline lobby will push and eventually the politicians will approve to mixed feelings by the public.

IMO - we may not see it for a decade or more and it'll start on a smaller scale - think cargo and regional flying. Even then - the US will not be the first to try it out. We'll first see it overseas with likely mixed results. One major accident though and you'll see 2 pilots back into all larger pax aircraft faster than any admittance of guilt.

All in all - we'll likely see the shift in corp aircraft before the airlines ever go single pilot. A big fleet transition to single pilot ops can change the dynamic of the industry. The Citation XL/XLS and Lear 45/75 fleets come to mind. But you can probably find enough RAC's to fill any open seats...

the FAA single pilot testing was supposed to be with cargo carriers.

In the cargo business, there's a lot of work in progress to go straight to drone technology for small to large aircraft so they may just skip the single pilot testing for cargo companies.
How long after cargo carriers go drone will that shift over to passenger aircraft is a question mark. I'd expect single pilot operations during the transition.

When this technology starts getting implemented is probably less than a decade away and eliminate any pilot shortage/need to raise retirement age. It will also kill pilot wages, as it would create a huge glut of pilots.

Where you'll likely first see remote piloted cargo aircraft is Alaska, and it'll be Caravan-sized aircraft. After some time of proving reliable there, those size aircraft will spread to domestic cargo feeder operations into rural areas of the Plains and Southwest.

We're a LONG way from commercial remote-piloted widebody (or narrowbody) transport aircraft in 121 cargo operations into LAX, ONT, MEM, SDF, IND, RFD, JFK, MIA, etc.

Could be way off base on this one, but I'd think it will either be 2 pilot or no pilot, no real in between. If there is one thing that has the potential to unite pilots, it's the threat losing half the pilot force and the stagnation/loss of wages that single pilot ops would bring. Not that i'm advocating for it, as I don't think I'll see it during my career, but imagine if just AAL/DAL/FDX/SWA/UPS pilots didn't show up to work one day. I'd think the companies/regulators have know to be prepared for such an event.

I'd like to think so, but the pace of new technology is quickly making large commercial drone aircraft a not too distant possibility.

I don't know when or how it will be implemented, but drone technology is a big concern for me.