United States: A U.S. Senate committee approved legislation on Thursday aimed at boosting staffing of safety inspectors and air traffic controllers but decided against endorsing a measure to raise the mandatory retirement age for airline pilots from 65 to 67.
The U.S. House of Representatives by 351 to 69 votes passed a broad bill in July for reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that would increase the mandatory retirement age for pilots to reside at 67. The Commerce Committee of the Senate voted 14-13 to dismiss the raising of retirement age following the report by FAA earlier that week that more study was needed before Congress raised the age.
Even the International Aviation Rules which still apply would prevent pilots older than 65 from flying in most countries around the world except the United States.
Senate Plan Addresses Airline Consumer Protections
While differences will have to be resolved between $107 billion, five-year FAA Senate bill and the House version, the momentum of the push has been gained after the recent in-flight emergency on the Alaska Airlines Boeing (BA.N) 737 MAX 9 raised questions on oversight of the aircraft maker by the FAA.
In addition, five more round-trip flights from Reagan Washington National Airport—a request made by Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) but opposed by other airlines—would be approved by the Senate plan.
The Senate bill did not include many of the tougher consumer protections that the Biden administration had requested. Instead, it forbids airlines from charging extra for families to seat together and mandates that they accept coupons and credits for a minimum of five years.
Industry Response and Airline Requests
The plan was hailed by the industry-grade group Airlines for America, which expressed satisfaction that the Senate Commerce Committee chose to “forgo policies that would harm consumers and unnecessarily raise operating costs and passenger fares.”
In addition to increasing the maximum civil penalty for airline consumer breaches from $25,000 to $75,000, the law directs the FAA to hire more inspectors, engineers, and technical specialists in order to address the shortfall of 3,000 air traffic controllers.
“We put more FAA safety inspectors on factory floors and more air traffic controllers into towers,” Cantwell said. “We have a huge responsibility to make sure FAA is doing its job to keep passengers safe.”
Safety Measures and FAA Oversight
Senator Ted Cruz, a top Republican on the committee, said the bill will “nurture innovation and nascent technology like air taxis, hypersonic planes, and unmanned aircraft.”
Senators decided not to include new authority for state attorneys general to investigate airline consumer problems, but Cantwell intends to hold hearings which may lead to a future bill.
The current bill further mandates airplanes to be fitted with a 25-hour cockpit recording equipment as well as incorporates the use of advanced airport surface technology which was deployed by FAA to help prevent collisions.