I just came across this thread by accident. I’m a 64-year-old training captain with easyJet who is about to retire. The whole age versus experience thing is a very difficult issue. Although it might not be stated as a policy, I’m pretty certain we would not look at a 54-year-old copilot with or without an A320 rating. We have quite a number of 27 to 32-year-old captains could have come up through the cadet system. We have in the past had some older first officers, but it’s not always been as stunning success. That is obviously a sweeping generalisation and there are clearly exceptions. In terms of accusations of ageism, I believe we have in the past taken captains who are over 60 years old. We would always be concerned about why someone has not made captain by age 54. That said, there are clearly a lot of very rational explanations as to why that may be the case.
What Emirates or other airlines do is up to them. What I can say is that no one wants to take unnecessary chances in pilot selection. It would be clearly outrageous to suggested every first officer in their 50s is somehow deficient in their capability. However, it would also be true to say that there is a significantly increased training risk. Therefore, the harsh reality is that for many major airlines the door has closed at that stage. It is for others to decide if that is an acceptable policy or not.