WASHINGTON, April 29 (Reuters) - U.S. House and Senate

negotiators said early Monday they had reached a deal to boost

air traffic controller staffing and boost funding to avert

runway close-call incidents, but will not increase the airline

pilot retirement age to 67 from 65.

The U.S. House of Representatives in July voted 351-69 on a

sweeping bill to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration

(FAA) that would also raise the mandatory pilot retirement age

to 67 but the Senate Commerce Committee had voted in February to

reject the retirement age increase. International rules would

have prevented airline pilots older than 65 from flying in most

countries outside the United States.

Congress has temporarily extended authorization for the FAA

through May 10 as it works on a new $105 billion, five-year

deal. The Senate is set to vote this week on the more than

1,000-page bipartisan proposal.

The bill prohibits airlines from charging fees for families

to sit together and requires airlines to accept vouchers and

credits for at least five years, but did not adopt many stricter

consumer rules sought by the Biden administration.

The bill also requires airplanes to be equipped with

25-hour cockpit recording devices

and directs the FAA to deploy advanced airport surface

technology to help prevent collisions.

Efforts to boost aviation safety in the United States

have taken on new urgency after a series of near-miss incidents

and the Jan. 5 Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9

door plug mid-air emergency.

Senate Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell, the

panel's top Republican, Ted Cruz, House Transportation Committee

chair Sam Graves and the committee's top Democrat, Rick Larsen,

in a joint statement announced the agreement and said "now more

than ever, the FAA needs strong and decisive direction from

Congress to ensure America's aviation system maintains its gold

standard."

The proposal raises maximum civil penalties for airline

consumer violations from $25,000 per violation to $75,000 and

aims to address a shortage of 3,000 air traffic controllers by

directing the FAA to implement improved staffing standards and

to hire more inspectors, engineers and technical specialists.

Congress will not establish minimum seat size

requirements, leaving that instead to the FAA. The bill requires

the Transportation Department to create a dashboard that shows

consumers the minimum seat size for each U.S. airline.

The bill boosts by five the number of daily direct

flights from Washington Reagan National Airport.

Cantwell said the agreement - including a five-year

reauthorization for the National Transportation Safety Board -

demonstrates aviation safety and stronger consumer standards are

a big priority.