FAA raising the retirement age will too once politicians see regionals pulling out of markets en masse.

Why would that make a difference? Most people set out with a goal to retire. If you can hit the goal early, why would you prolong it just because it’s legally allowed?

90% of the guys i talk to flying is there life. They will retire when they are forced to. The other 10%. Have way better life's and will retire in there early 60’s..

That’s pretty sad

That would slow the exodus for a few months IMO.

Most of the 60+ pilots are at the majors, and I think most of them are in a financial position to hang it up at 65. Not everybody wants to fly until they drop, many would like to have time to enjoy what they've earned.

Although I think full SS is now at age 67 for those people.

But there are other factors... ICAO does not allow age 67, so many such (senior WB) pilots would have to be re-trained on domestic fleets (assuming they're even willing to take a pay cut and enjoy domestic schedules at 65+). That would further jam up training pipelines.

You’re the most senior of your career at retirement. For many, that means the best trips and easiest work and most amount of time off. If I was still healthy and could drop down to 1-2 good trips a month, I might stick around a bit longer, even if I was financially set.

Exactly this. I used to think I would punch out before age 60, but once you’re at that seniority level, making money is so freaking easy that there is no reason not to do it.

Until ICAO weighs in and you get booted off the 350 and sent to 73 class.


Also if airlines don't want to deal with re-training and scheduling 65+ pilots for domestic only, they might legally be able to require that you be fully qualified to fly to any destination your fleet goes to. Any mainline fleets that don't go to CA or MX?

Well, there’s the whole risk of losing a lot of market share that can never be regained if the regionals are simply left to wither on the vine. AA in particular is at risk of this.

But if you're dropping most of your schedule, you're airline is still going to have to hire people to cover the flying.