Senate panel OKs raising pilot retirement age

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Airline passengers might see more pilots sporting the "gray hair of experience" if a bill passed Thursday by the Senate Commerce Committee becomes law.

One of three bills reported out by the committee in hopes of improving U.S. airline service is a measure that would raise the mandatory retirement age for commercial airline pilots to 63 from 60. The bills now goes to the full Senate for consideration.

The original bill on pilot age called for raising the maximum age to 65, but on a 13-8 vote the committee approved an amendment introduced by Chairman Senator John McCain, R-Arizona. moving the limit to 63. Only Democrats voted against the change.

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The amendment also provides that pilots who have reached age 60 can be required to undergo "more stringent medical, cognitive, or proficiency testing in order to retain certification" and that "pairing standards" can be set for crews with the older pilots.

Earlier this week, FAA officials had testified that pilots over age 60 are more likely to have accidents.

Other bills focus on service, mergers

The committee also sent to the Senate the Airline Customer Service Improvement Act and the Aviation Competition Restoration Act, both with amendments.

The competition act had been designed to require a "public interest test" by the Department of Transportation for any airlines planning to merge. Currently only the Justice Department reviews airline mergers. But much of the language on mergers was taken out of the bill in an amendment offered by Senator Fritz Hollings, D-South Carolina.

However, the bill as amended still requires that the DOT investigate the assignment and usage of gates and other facilities at the nation's 35 largest airports so that dominant air carriers are not forcing out possible competitors.

Some Republicans on the committee viewed these regulations as "re-regulation." But McCain argued that "this bill does not in any way dictate fares, routes or schedules. .... Many of the major airlines benefit greatly from the slots that were given to them many years ago at no cost. Those slots now act as one of many barriers to new entry and competition."

The amended customer service act requires airlines to quote the lowest available fares, inform passengers of the pattern of delays for chronically delayed flights, and give force of law to the voluntary service agreements reached with airlines last year.

The bill also directs the DOT to increase the minimum compensation that airlines must pay passengers when they are involuntarily bumped from a flight.

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Federal Aviation Administration
U.S. Department of Transportation

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