There are those who say Delta and Northwest may go the same route. The government-run pension fund pays out a maximum of $45,000 a year, but that's for people who retire at age 65. For those who retire at age 60, including airline pilots, the payout is only around $28,000 a year.ommercial airline pilots must retire at age 60. That hasn't been a problem in the past because pilots had generous pensions. But with several of the major airlines in bankruptcy, pilots are seeing their pensions reduced and some are fighting mandatory retirement.
To determine how much retired pay you may be eligible to receive, the first step is to calculate the number of equivalent years of service. The formula for computing equivalent years of service for Reserve retired pay at age 60 is fairly simple: Total number of Creditable Retirement Points, divided by 360.
There are three ways to compute reserve retirement, which is based on when you first entered military service (not just reserve service). If you have 20 qualifying years of service and your initial date of entry is: â¦ Before Sept. 8, 1980, divide the number of retirement points by 360. That gives you the years of service (in active-duty years). Multiply that by 0.025 (2.5 percent). Multiply that by the basic monthly active-duty pay for your grade and years of service on the retired-pay effective date (normally your 60th birthday).