Airline said there was no flying left for pilots over 65. An arbitrator disagreed
An airline's attempt to ground pilots the moment they turn 65 has hit a wall, with an arbitrator ruling the carrier failed to prove there was no other work these veteran flyers could do.
In an August 21, 2026, decision, sole arbitrator Mark Hart found that WestJet breached its collective agreement with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and failed to accommodate pilots over 65 under the Canadian Human Rights Act. The dispute centred on WestJet's Age Restricted Flying Policy, introduced in May 2025, under which the airline said no flying work remained for pilots once they turned 65. Hart disagreed, ordering WestJet to build a formal accommodation plan rather than awarding damages.
WestJet had let pilots over 65 keep flying domestic-only routes within Canadian airspace since the airline's 1996 founding, long before international rules caught up. After the International Civil Aviation Organization raised its global age limit to 65 in 2006, WestJet formalized the practice in a 2014 policy, letting pilots defer retirement and keep flying domestically at full rank, seniority and pay.
That changed on May 28, 2025, when WestJet's new Age Restricted Flying Policy began an accommodation review at age 64. The airline concluded no flying was available for pilots who could no longer meet international age limits, triggering its out-of-role process and, for...
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