NetJets Defeats Pilots’ Age Bias Challenge to Retirement Mandate

NetJets Aviation Inc. won’t have to face a suit alleging its mandatory retirement age for pilots is discriminatory because federal law blocks their age bias claims.

Nearly a dozen pilots sued the private plane company over a new policy requiring pilots to retire once they turn 70. But the mandatory cutoff is “undoubtedly an action taken in conformance” with federal regulations on pilot age standards, so they can’t pursue Age Discrimination in Employment Act claims based on it, the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio said.

The pilots’ union took NetJets to arbitration and lost, and ...