(Cheap flights) Pilots Age 60 Where Is It Now
No commentsBy Steven Rowland
Probably one of the most contentious issues of recent times in the aviation community is the proposed changes to the age 60 rule. As most of the readers will be aware, age 60 is a mandatory retirement age for pilots involved in the part 121 airline environment. Representations and pressure groups from both ends of the age spectrum have recently been engaged in open warfare to influence the change in legislation to their specific sides benefit.
In early 2005, the republican senator for Nevada introduced a bill, HR 65, which dealt with altering the retirement age for airline pilots from 60 to 65, so as to be inline with ICAO rules. The resolution was then referred to the House Committee on Transportation and infrastructure which was chaired by Rep. Don Young. Subsequently HR 65 was then referred to the Sub Committee on Aviation which falls under the jurisdiction of the Transportation committee. There was indeed no hearings ever conducted on HR 65 nor were any recommendations tendered to the House Committee on Transportation. Thats basically where the resolution remained all through 2006 until the 109th Congress adjourned in December.
Further to the above, a bill entitled S 65 was sponsored in the Senate which was then referred to the relevant committee for consideration. On the 19th July 2005, the committee met and convened a hearing to consider the issue. Representations from many pressure groups such as, FAA, Aerospace Medical Association, Airline Pilots Association, SWAPA, Allied Pilots Association, and Jetblue Airways Corporation were heard and evaluated by the committee members. On the 17th of November the committee ruled and acquiesced to support the change to mirror the ICAO regulations. Following the above procedure, the bill was released from committee and placed upon the Senate Legislative Calendar.
This is the point that many bills perish before even making it to the floor as the responsibility lays with the Senate Majority leader to determine which bills are addressed by the that session of the Senate. The Senate Majority Leader, Senator Frist never determined a date for the hearing of the bill and that is where the bill remained until perishing with the adjournment of the 109th Congress.
Whilst, both bills died a standalone death, they received a much needed boost by their incorporation as amendments into the Transportations Appropriations Bill, HR 5576. Generally, these money bills are voted and passed in the house before moving into the second phase of review in the Senate. While in review in Senate Sub Committee the S 65 changes where added to the appropriations bill.
However, due to the election the money bill was never voted upon and therefore ceased when the 109th congress adjourned in December 2006. Rather than pass these appropriations bills congress choose to pass a continuing resolution which allowed the federal government to fund their agencies until Feb 15th, 2007.
So as it stands, the amendments remain within the appropriations bill and must be addressed by the 110th Congress whether individually or rolled up into a single bill called an omnibus bill. As the balance of power in Congress has changed its unlikely that the Democrat led Senate would choose to keep any controversial amendments in the appropriations bill lest it cause the delay of federal funding for their agencies. Having said that, there is tremendous pressure from both sides of the age divide to influence the proceedings.
It’s difficult to argue with the plight of the lower end of the seniority list, having been restricted from the usual career progression by a number of factors including 911 and the vicious airline bankruptcies. Any change to the age 60 rule would surely delay their captain upgrades by at least 5 years and cost untold thousands in lost career earnings. The alternative side of the argument is that age 60 is discriminatory and that pilots may very well be medically capable of pursuing the left seat until age 65.
Irrespective of your viewpoint, it is imperative that ALPA brings all pilots, regardless of seniority, together on this issue. As surely a hotbed issue such as this will only be detrimental to any alliance that currently exists between the different pilot groups and airline management most definitely does not require another issue to play wedge politics with.
Steve Rowland is the administrator and web master of Student Loan Consolidation Center and aims to make it significantly easier for intending students to access higher education.
Steven is also the editor and webmaster of Free Articles a site specialising in providing guides and free articles.
The Vast Benefits Of Online Shopping
By Daniel Millions
Online shopping is a phenomenon which has taken the world by storm. Only thirty years ago, if you wanted to purchase a product, it was necessary to get in the car, drive to a store, and spend half an hour or so looking for what you want. Now, in the twenty-first century, you can buy nearly anything you want from the comfort of your own home.
Brick and mortar businesses will always be popular, but e-commerce is a huge industry and growing at an amazing rate. The technology first became available in 1991, although it was not until years later that online shopping began to gain momentum. As the years went on, more and more people began to trust the Internet and the businesses on it. Currently, tens of billions of dollars worth of transactions are conducted online every month, with a large percentage of those transactions being business to business.
Price is one of the key advantages of shopping online. Most Internet users nowadays have a DSL or cable Internet connection, enabling them to browse websites at a high speed. This means that it is easy to shop around, and check out various websites to see which one has the lowest price. If one puts enough time into it, it is possible to find a product at half the cost than in a traditional store.
Often, shopping online can be somewhat time consuming. However, the majority of people enjoy buying products online; some even consider it a pastime. When people find an activity they enjoy, they rarely refer to that activity as time consuming. Therefore, online shopping is not only a productive event, but a fun one as well.
Arguably, the most attractive benefit is convenience. It is incredibly easy and quick to make purchases online. All you have to do is find what you want, enter your shipping information, and pay. It does not matter what you are wearing, what time it is, who you are with, what day it is, or the weather outside (unless it takes down your connection). When shopping online, you have complete control and freedom to buy what you want when you want.
Initially, Ecommerce was relatively insecure. There were not as many security protocols, it was easier to get scammed, and it was hard to know who to trust. Thankfully, things are different now. There are a variety of encryption technologies available, which protect vital information from being stolen in transit. In addition, many companies offer Secure Socket Layer certificates and trust marks to remove any consumer doubts about the authenticity of a website. Careful shoppers can easily distinguish between fraudulent and legitimate websites with the resources currently available.
Ecommerce has enabled common citizens to not only buy products online, but sell them too. Auction sites like eBay let anybody list products, in exchange for a small fee. The reality that anybody can sell anything online has contributed to the huge success of online shopping. Many people can actually make a living selling things on eBay, without even having a website of their own.
What does the future hold for Ecommerce? Statistics predict that it will keep growing at an exponential rate, as more people become computer literate and more businesses expand their online campaigns. It is quite possible that in a few years, online businesses will outnumber brick and mortar businesses.
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Monday, August 25th, 2008 at 4:49 pm and is filed under aviation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.