The U.S. Congress has reached agreement to bolster air traffic controller staffing levels.
However, lawmakers haven’t approved raising the airline pilot retirement age to 67 from 65 as was proposed.
The Senate Commerce Committee voted to reject the retirement age increase.
This is in part due to maximum age rules for pilots operating international flights.
Reversing the low air traffic controller staffing levels have been spurred by a rising number of near miss incidents on runways at many airports.
There is an air traffic controller shortage of about 3,000 positions.
“Now more than ever, the FAA needs strong and decisive direction from Congress to ensure America’s aviation system maintains its gold standard,” the Senate Commerce Committee said.
The current bipartisan bill covers a multitude of other safety and consumer issues like outlawing airlines from charging fees for families to sit together and raising civil penalties for airline consumer law violations.
