This route obviously takes longer and requires significant self discipline. If your dream is to Captain a 747, youâre going have less chance of achieving this when starting your aviation career in later years. A forty five year old has a maximum of twenty years of flying as a career, assuming the medical is maintained. You may only Captain a commercial aircraft up to the age of sixty, so then you would only have fifteen years to reach command, which can be the typical time to captaincy at legacy carriers. In Europe it is illegal for an employer to discriminate against age.