The airlines have always preferred the certainty given by a set age. If this goes forward as a case, the law will probably change, and the airlines will have to start assessing individuals more closely.]
Read it again, here in Australia "the airlines" will let us fly as long as we hold the medical. I know of jet and turboprop pilots in their seventies.
Why would the airlines need to assess anything? The CAA issue the medical not the airline.
If it is all about statistics then where is the evidence? The deadly fifties is rife with heart attacks but those who live through to mid sixties seem to fare better.
The guys I speak with just find the sim checks and unsociable hours wear them down.
This will force CAA medical to defend an arbitrary age cut off, if they can show the numbers, fine but I sense they cannot, otherwise Australia, Canada etc would follow the same logic.