oh oh
In this discussion the age of 55 is not an issue. Some airlines, (a few), retire their pilots at 55 but this is usually after they have enjoyed a full career and then get, say, a 75% of final salary pension and a lump sum of, say, GBP100K. Under those conditions it would be hard to imagine the circumstances under which a pilot would choose to work beyond the age of 55, (but they do! just ask SIA!).
The age issue concerns pilots who are obliged to retire at the age of 60 when they feel perfectly able to continue for a few years and their medical state and professional performance indicates that they could. Often such pilots have not had the good fortune to remain in one company or on a steadily increasing salary scale for their flying career but more often have been made redundant a few times or put out of work due to a company going broke. Such pilots are numerous and when they started out on their flying career the retirement age was 65!.
Had I ever had the opportunity, at an early age, to join one of the few companies that has a retirement age of 55 then I would have known that I was on a 'banker' and continuing beyond 60 would not have occured to me!