CAAN allows pilots to fly up to 65 year

Amending the Flight Operation Requirement (FOR) the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has decided to allow pilots to fly up to 65 years.

“We amended the FOR clause allowing the pilots to renew their flying licences until the age of 65 as per the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standard,” The Himalayan Times daily quoted Ratish Chandra Lal Suman, chief of CAAN’s Aviation Safety Department as saying. Nepal is a member state of ICAO.

Until now, the standard retirement age of pilots in the majority of domestic airlines including Nepal Airlines Corporation was 58. However, it is up to the individual airlines to set their retirement age but it should not exceed 65, said Suman.

However, the pilots cannot escape CAAN requirements if they intend to fly well above 60. The amended FOR requires pilots to undergo several medical tests including “treadmill” (heart-related medical test) and “audiometry” (hearing) tests before getting their flying licences renewed every six months.

Vijay Shrestha, vice-president of the Airlines Operators’ Association of Nepal welcomed CAAN’s amended FOR terming it “timely”. nepalnews.com pb Nov 23 06