Demand to hike air traffic controllers' retirement age to 65, make it on par with pilots

KOLKATA: An air traffic control officer (ATCO) who was a functionary in the Air Traffic Controllers' Guild has called for the retirement age of controllers to be increased from 60 years to 65 years, on par with that of pilots. He has also called for the reduction in application age for the ATCO licence from 21 years to 17 years, again matching that of the requirement for pilots.

In a letter to civil aviation minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu, Kailash Pati Mandal , who served at the Guild's regional secretary till 2020, said: "Airline operators use experienced pilots in the age bracket of 60-65 years in training and development of next generation pilots. Mandal has pointed out that experienced ATCOs can be similarly used to train the young recruits but they cannot do so unless the ATCO licence is extended till the age of 65."

Mandal has argued that though the fitness level required for pilots — Class I medical standard — is more stringent than ATCOs who require Class III standard, yet pilots are allowed to function till 65 years while ATCOs are retired at 60 years.

Mandal said the revision is important to not only tide over the manpower crunch at a time when more airports are coming into operation under the UDAN scheme , thereby requiring deployment of more controllers, he has pointed out that experienced controllers are being retired after 35 years in service when they can be utilized for another five years to train the next generation of ATCOs.

"All the smaller new airports under RCS scheme need more and more ATCOs to for smooth and safe operation. In most of the cases, the huge untapped experience of ATCOs in the age bracket 60-65 years can do wonders as many operational as well as administration works needs operational experience that they can provide," Mandal added.