NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Southwest Airlines will file a friend of the court brief next week in support of 12 pilots who are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Federal Aviation Administration's requirement that pilots retire at age 60, Time magazine reports.

In its online edition, the magazine says the low-cost carrier is the first major airline to support the elimination of the Age 60 rule.

"Times are changing," Southwest (Research) spokeswoman Linda Rutherford told Time. "We are losing some really good pilots."

The magazine says the Age 60 rule has been in effect since 1959, with advocates such as the FAA believing that pilots begin to lose cognitive and motor skills as they reach that milestone.

But Time says critics of the rule say it has only been in effect to take the older pilots, often the highest paid employees of an airline, off the payroll in place of a cheaper, younger pilot.

The 12 pilots asked the Supreme Court earlier this month to review their petition to end the rule.