The debate over the FAA’s mandatory pilot retirement age has returned to the center of the aviation industry, but this time with far greater political momentum and operational urgency than in previous decades. A growing coalition of lawmakers, regional airlines, and industry advocates is pushing to raise the mandatory retirement age for airline pilots to 67, arguing that the United States can no longer afford to lose thousands of experienced aviators each year amid a worsening pilot shortage. Airlines currently have to abide by a federal pilot retirement age of 65.