The National Civil Aviation Administration (ANAC) of Argentina issued the Resolution 516/2024, published this Monday, November 25, 2024, in the Official Gazette.
This resolution modifies the Argentine Civil Aviation Regulations (RAAC) to remove age restrictions that prevented pilots from operating commercial aircraft beyond 60 or 65 years of age, depending on the type of operation.
Section 61.3(h) of Part 61 of the RAAC established that pilots could not operate aircraft assigned to a commercial air transport company requiring a single pilot if they had reached 60 years of age. For operations requiring both a pilot and a copilot, the limit was 65 years. These restrictions aligned with Amendment 172 to Annex I of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, incorporated into national regulations through ANAC Resolutions 980/2010 and 813/2014.
The new resolution, as stated in ANAC’s considerations, responds to industry requests to relax these age limits, taking into account international trends and the need to adapt the regulations to the current dynamics of the aviation industry.
Furthermore, ANAC assures that the removal of these restrictions does not compromise operational safety, provided that pilots meet the established medical and competency requirements.
This measure, they add, aims to optimize the use of human resources in commercial aviation, allowing experienced pilots to continue operating beyond the previously established age limits, in line with practices adopted in other countries.
At the 14th Air Navigation Conference held in late August, ICAO presented a working paper that formally initiated discussions that could lead to raising or eliminating recommended age limits for the retirement of commercial pilots. This considers advances in medical and aviation technologies, as well as inclusion and non-discrimination policies.
In major markets such as the United States and the European Union, no decisions have yet been made on this matter.
As of this publication, the annex to Resolution 516/2024 had not yet been published on ANAC’s website.
