Commercial Airline Pilots Have A Mandatory Retirement Age. Here's Why.
Commercial Airline Pilots Have A Mandatory Retirement Age. Here's Why.
Caroline BolognaWed, September 16, 2026 at 11:00 AM UTC
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There are many professions where people stretch the limits of retirement (cough, cough, Congress), but commercial aviation is certainly not one of them.
Indeed, commercial airline pilots in the United States are required to retire at 65 ― a practice that is mandated by federal regulation.
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“In 1959, the Federal Aviation Administration conducted a study using scientific and medical research exploring when airline pilots should retire, and the agency came up with age 60,” Dan Bubb, a former airline pilot and professor in residence in the honors college at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told HuffPost. “During later years, the FAA conducted more studies based on scientific and medical data, and in 2007, increased the age to 65.”
The FAA’s decision to raise the retirement age to 65 in the U.S. was driven by changes in international regulations.
“In 2006, the International Civil Aviation Organization raised the mandatory age for commercial airline pilots to retire from 60 to 65 years old,” said Anton Radchenko, an international aviation lawyer and CEO of AirAdvisor.
Had the American government kept its requirement at 60, the disparity would have created a logistical nightmare for foreign airlines with older pilots, who would not be allowed to fly commercial routes in the U.S. Thus, the law was changed under the Fair Treatment for Experienced Pilots Act in December 2007.
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Cary Grant, a former commercial pilot and now assistant professor of aeronautical science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona, explained how the original age limit came to be (and subsequently became outdated).
“Originally, age 60 was medically determined to be a very set date when your mental acuity and your physical abilities kind of reached their limit,” he said. “But those were really set back in the early ’40s when pilots had a much rougher lifestyle than they do today. I don’t think pilots took care of themselves as well as they should have. They smoked, they drank, so the likelihood of a pilot living to be age 60 was a lot less ― not to mention their physical and mental capabilities.”
Grant noted that the population-level health profile of pilots has changed dramatically since then.
“A person at 60 is not the same person at 60 they were 80 years ago in the ’40s,” he said. “As we as a population started taking better care of ourselves mentally and physically, we’re living a lot longer.”
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Since 2007, the mandatory retirement age for pilots in the U.S. has been 65.FG Trade via Getty Images
The core rationale behind mandatory retirement comes down to the relationship between aging and the demands of the job.
“The reason behind the retirement age largely has to do with safety, including human factors such as declining motor skills, increasing fatigue and other issues that happen when people age,” Bubb said.
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Radchenko broke down the limits of the safety argument.
“The retirement age was originally introduced as a precaution intended to address age-related risks, including potential cognitive and physical decline beyond the age of 65, although available research does not establish that every pilot experiences significant decline after one precise age,” he explained. “However, statistically, adults aged over 65 are the age group most often and severely impacted by medical emergencies.”
Grant pointed to cognitive decline as the primary concern behind the current 65 limit.
“Pilots have to have an examination with an FAA doctor every year, and the word I got from the doctors was there are some pretty good indications that your mental acuity does start to decrease after age 65,” he said. “I don’t think it’s so much a physical capability, but a mental capability. And of course that is going to vary from person to person. I’ve seen people in their 90s that are sharp as a tack, and I’ve seen people in their late 50s that wonder where they are. But I think the FAA just looks at the broad pilot population and says, ‘We’re going to set 65.’”
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Pilots already face among the most rigorous ongoing medical requirements of any profession. Commercial airline pilots age 40 and over must pass a first-class medical exam every six months, covering vision, hearing, cardiovascular health and neurological function, including an EKG requirement. For those under 40, the examination is annual.
The mandatory retirement age is in some ways an acknowledgment that even those regular checkpoints have limits. Grant noted some have proposed adding a formalized mental aptitude or cognitive component to the physical exam. As of now, these kinds of tests are used selectively in certain instances, and examiners otherwise evaluate pilots’ mental status clinically through observation and medical history review.
“Should we be checking mental acuity and speed of reactions, cognitive ability? That’s very much a question,” he said. “But again, that varies so much from person to person.”
The question of whether 65 is the right age has been subject to much debate in recent years. Since 2022, members of congress have been pushing versions of the Let Experienced Pilots Fly Act to raise the retirement ceiling from 65 to 67.
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“At a time when people are living longer, healthier lives, supporters of allowing pilots to work for longer argue that many older pilots can retain the physical and cognitive capabilities required for the job,” Radchenko said. “Some airlines, lawmakers and industry groups support raising the age to retain experienced pilots and ease staffing pressures, while some pilot unions oppose it on safety and operational grounds.”
The international dimension also complicates any push to adjust the limit in the U.S.
“ICAO has kept the international limit at 65,” Radchenko said. “If the U.S. Congress raised it to 67, pilots over 65 could fly domestically but would generally be unable to fly internationally without specific authorization.”
Bubb pointed to this issue as part of the reason the FAA has been adamant about keeping 65.
“Regional airlines and special interests want to raise the age to 67 because it will ... allegedly stave off a pilot shortage,” he added. “However, many regional pilots leave for the major airlines long before age 65, and according to the Airline Pilots Association and labor unions, there is no shortage of pilots. Further, the FAA has not conducted any studies on raising the retirement age to 67.”
There are some financial incentives pulling the airline industry in both directions, noted Grant.
“From a financial standpoint, those age-65 pilots are the ones that are making the most money,” he said. “But it costs the airlines a lot of money to bring somebody in at the bottom and start training them to fill those seat positions. So it kind of balances out.”
The views on this debate can vary from airline to airline and within different pilot ranks as well.
“Younger pilots don’t necessarily want to see age 67 come in because that slows down their progression,” Grant said. “Everything ― what you get paid, what you can bid, what equipment you’re flying ― is all based on seniority. If those upper pilots aren’t moving, they’re sitting up there in the captain’s seat for another two years. That stops any movement upwards. But of course, when those younger pilots get into that position, they may want to seek an increase to 67.”
Raising the age could also lead to changes in the requirements for the medical exam every six months as well.
“There was a pretty good push to up the limit to age 67 around 2019 when the airline saw the forthcoming retirements,” Grant recalled. “The pandemic stalled the impact of the mass exodus of pilots for several years because airline traffic just didn’t pick up like it did pre-COVID. So it gave the airlines some breathing room to get new pilots on at the bottom to replace those retiring pilots.”
Thus, the mandatory retirement age for pilots in the U.S. remains consistent with the global standard set by the ICAO.
“For commercial operations, most countries follow the same standard,” Grant said. “If you are involved with flying passengers for hire, you fall under the ICAO regulations. There are some countries that don’t have a limit if you’re performing operations entirely within their boundaries. So if you want to fly entirely within Chile, for instance, they don’t have an upper limit. But as soon as you leave Chile, that age-65 rule applies.”
And whether the lawmakers deciding to change the age will ever face such rule regarding their own time in office remains to be seen.
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