By David Shepardson
(Reuters) -A bipartisan group of five U.S. senators including incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune urged President Joe Biden's administration on Wednesday to back international efforts to raise the mandatory pilot retirement age.
Last year, Congress rejected a push to raise the mandatory airline pilot retirement age to 67 from 65. International rules prevent airline pilots older than 65 from flying in most countries outside the United States.
The group of senators is led by Marsha Blackburn and includes her fellow Republicans Thune and Lindsey Graham as well as Democrat Mark Kelly and independent Joe Manchin.
They urged U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to advocate at the International Civil Aviation Organization, an agency of the United Nations, for hiking the retirement age. They did not suggest a specific age.
"The American public deserves the most qualified and experienced pilots when traveling," the senators wrote in the letter first reported by Reuters.
The State Department, Federal Aviation Administration and the Air Line Pilots Association did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A group representing major airlines declined to comment.
The senators urged the U.S. mission to ICAO to "not spend this debate sitting on the sidelines. If the United States cedes our leadership role in this space on the international stage, we know that China - who is presently and actively joining our partners to advocate for raising the pilot retirement age - will gladly fill that void."
The FAA in February asked Congress to give it time to conduct additional research before raising the retirement age. The U.S. House of Representatives had voted 351-69 in July 2023 to approve a sweeping aviation bill that would also raise the mandatory pilot retirement age to 67. But the provision was dropped from the final legislation passed by Congress.
The Air Line Pilots Association has opposed raising the retirement age and said such a move could cause airline scheduling and pilot training issues and also require reopening pilot contract talks.
The U.S. mission to ICAO in Montreal has been without an ambassador since Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, the commercial airline pilot who safely landed an Airbus A320 on New York's Hudson (NYSE:HUD) River in 2009, stepped down in July 2022. Biden nominated former Florida Governor Charlie Christ to the post in 2023, but the Senate has not confirmed the appointment.