EgyptAir Pilot Requirements 2026: Hours, License and Hiring Process

EgyptAir, Egypt’s national airline, based in Cairo, recruits its First Officers from Egyptian nationals on an Egyptian license. At the last check, on 2 November 2026, we found no open EgyptAir pilot vacancy, for First Officers or Captains: its own careers pages could not be read for this check, and the 2026 announcements of the EgyptAir Holding Company that we found were for other posts, such as drivers in May. When it has recruited, older EgyptAir First Officer notices, as a job board and a pilots’ forum quote them, asked for an Egyptian high-school certificate, a CPL with instrument rating issued by the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority with all ATPL theory passed (a frozen ATPL), military service completed or exempted, and a Class 1 medical; the age limit and the English level of the next notice are not confirmed. EgyptAir took its first Airbus A350-900 in February 2026 and its first Boeing 737-8 in May 2026, two of the 12 new aircraft that Egypt’s Civil Aviation Ministry said would join its fleet in 2026.

Is EgyptAir hiring pilots now?

Unconfirmed at the last check on 2 November 2026 — First Officer seat: Unconfirmed; Captain seat: Unconfirmed. Egyptian nationals: First Officers with an Egyptian (ECAA) CPL/IR and frozen ATPL, as older EgyptAir notices describe the intake; no 2026 pilot announcement found for either seat

Requirements, as published

Reading the requirements line by line

EgyptAir’s careers pages could not be read for this check, and no current EgyptAir pilot notice surfaced on 2 November 2026, so the table above is what older EgyptAir notices said, as the Pilot Jobs Network job board (entries last updated between 2012 and 2019) and a PPRuNe forum thread quote them. Read the next notice itself before you rely on any of them.

• Egyptian nationals, with military service settled. The notices are for Egyptian nationals who have completed their military service or, in the forum’s copy, hold a final exemption. We found no current EgyptAir pilot route for other nationalities.
• An Egyptian license, with the ATPL theory done. A commercial pilot license with instrument rating issued by the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA), with all the ATPL theory subjects passed: what pilots informally call a frozen ATPL, a CPL and instrument rating whose holder has the ATPL passes but not yet the hours (the Library’s commercial and airline transport pilot licenses). Under ICAO Annex 1, the international floor, the airline transport pilot license for airplanes itself needs at least 1,500 hours of flight time as a pilot of airplanes (2.6.3.1.1), so the hours for the full license come later, in the right seat. If you train abroad, ask the ECAA first how it converts a foreign license and theory credit, since the notices ask for an ECAA license.
• No hours figure. The First Officer notices we found state no minimum flight time of their own.
• School, medical and tests. An Egyptian high-school certificate or its equivalent, a Class 1 medical, and a pass in all of EgyptAir’s own tests. For the 2019 recruitment, the job board listed those tests as an IQ and mathematics test on computer, the American University in Cairo’s SEPT English test, an ATPL written exam and a technical interview of 5 to 10 minutes.
• Age and English, not confirmed. We found no current notice that sets them. The job board’s older entries, for First Officers (2012) and Second Officers (2019), give an age limit at application of 23 for high-school graduates and 35 for university graduates, and ask for ICAO English Level 4 of First Officers and Level 5 of Second Officers, Level 6 preferred. ICAO recommends re-evaluating Level 4 at intervals of no more than three years and Level 5 at no more than six (the Library’s pilot licensing framework), so whichever level the next notice asks for, check the date on your endorsement.
• The type rating and the contract. The job board’s 2014 entry says EgyptAir offered no scholarship: the CPL holders it accepted were given an airline basic course and the type rating, in return for signing a seven-year contract after the basic course. A forum’s copy of an older notice also mentions a bond, so read the contract terms in the notice you apply to.
• Captains. We found no current EgyptAir Captain notice. The job board’s last Captain entry, from 2014, asked for an ICAO ATPL with 4,000 hours and a rating on a type EgyptAir operates; whether EgyptAir recruits Captains from outside today is among the points we could not confirm.

Entry routes

• First Officer — Egyptian nationals with an ECAA CPL/IR and frozen ATPL (older notices; no 2026 intake found)
• No EgyptAir cadet route found: EgyptAir Training Academy offers type ratings to pilots already licensed, not PPL or CPL courses, and does not offer or guarantee jobs (its FAQ, in search results); a job board’s 2014 entry says EgyptAir offered no scholarship
• Direct entry Captain — not published: no current EgyptAir Captain notice found; a job board’s 2014 entry asked for an ICAO ATPL, 4,000 h and a rating on a type EgyptAir operates

Where the license comes from

We found no EgyptAir route that trains pilots from zero. The FAQ of EgyptAir Training Academy, as search results showed it on 2 November 2026, says the academy offers no PPL or CPL courses, only type ratings for pilots who already hold a license, and that it is responsible for training only and does not offer or guarantee jobs; the job board’s 2014 entry likewise says EgyptAir offered no scholarship. A type-rating course at the academy is therefore not an EgyptAir hiring route. The license the notices ask for comes from flight training elsewhere, and we have no two published school price lists to compare, so we give no cost. Choose training that leads to the ECAA’s ATPL theory examinations as well as the CPL and instrument rating, since the notices ask for all the ATPL subjects passed, not only the CPL.

Watch the EgyptAir Holding Company’s recruitment site, hrholding.egyptair.com, where its 2026 announcements for other posts appeared, and EgyptAir’s own careers pages, rather than third-party pages, for the next First Officer notice.

EgyptAir beside the other airlines in Africa

EgyptAir beside the other airlines in Africa on our jobs board, as recorded at each airline’s last check:

Read the right-to-work column first. Kenya Airways, South African Airways and Airlink, like EgyptAir, ask for their own country’s nationality on their published First Officer routes; Kenya Airways’ last listing, which expired on 31 December 2025, asked for 250 hours, and Airlink’s Cadet stream asks for 200 (21 October 2026). Royal Air Maroc recruits pilots from abroad on contract, but only pilots already rated on the 737, the 787 or the Embraer E-Jet (2 November 2026), and Ethiopian Airlines’ open postings were for expatriate Captains, while its non-rated 737 First Officer stream was closed (16 October 2026). Air Mauritius had a vacancy on its pilot selection portal, relayed by job boards and recruiters as A330 and A350 direct-entry First Officer posts, but we could not confirm whom it is open to (30 October 2026).

Selection process

1. IQ and mathematics test on computer (EgyptAir’s 2019 pilot recruitment, as the Pilot Jobs Network job board reported it)
2. English test: the American University in Cairo’s SEPT (same report)
3. ATPL written exam (same report)
4. Technical interview of 5 to 10 minutes (same report)

Bases and fleet

Bases: Cairo

Fleet: Airbus A320neo and A321neo (eight and seven in service in February 2026, Journal de l’Aviation) · Airbus A330 (eleven of the A330 family in February 2026, five of them A330-200P2F freighters, Journal de l’Aviation) · Airbus A350-900: the first of 16 ordered delivered in Toulouse on 9 February 2026 (Journal de l’Aviation, 9 February 2026) · Boeing 737-800 (30 Next-Generation 737s, Boeing, 3 May 2026) · Boeing 737-8: the first of 18 leased from SMBC Aviation Capital delivered in May 2026 (Boeing, 3 May 2026) · Boeing 787-9 (eight 787s, Boeing, 3 May 2026) · Boeing 777-300ER (five 777s, Boeing, 3 May 2026), which the A350-900s are to replace as their leases end from late 2026 (Journal de l’Aviation) · Plan: 12 new aircraft in 2026 and 34 A350-900s and 737-8s by 2031, 13 of them in 2027 (Egypt’s Civil Aviation Ministry, as Enterprise reported it on 16 February 2026)

How to prepare

EgyptAir flies Airbus and Boeing side by side, the A320neo and A321neo, the 737-800 and 737-8, the A330, the A350-900, the 787-9 and the 777-300ER, and none of the notices we found says which type a new First Officer is trained on, so cover both narrow-body families as well as the type you hope for. The A320 bank and the B737 bank below cover them, with the A320ceo to neo quiz for the neo and the NG to MAX quiz for the 737-8; the B787 bank covers the Dreamliner, and v1prep has no A330, A350 or 777 bank. EgyptAir does not publish its selection stages beyond a pass in its own tests, but for its 2019 pilot recruitment the Pilot Jobs Network job board reported an IQ and mathematics test on computer, an English test, an ATPL written exam and a short technical interview: the ATPL theory banks cover the written exam and the performance, meteorology and navigation questions of a technical interview, and the CRM interview set the crew resource management questions an interview may add. Do the paperwork before a notice opens: your high-school certificate, your military service certificate or exemption, your ECAA license with the record of your ATPL theory passes, and a current Class 1 medical. Keep your language proficiency endorsement current, whatever level the next notice asks for.

EgyptAir has no interview guide on v1prep yet, so for the selection read the complete airline pilot interview guide and the Library’s airline pilot recruitment and selection and technical questions in airline pilot interviews. For what a frozen ATPL is and what the full license adds, read commercial and airline transport pilot licenses; for the two narrow-body fleets, A320neo and A320ceo differences and Boeing 737 NG and 737 MAX differences. The other airlines of the region are on pilot jobs in Africa, and two of them on Royal Air Maroc and Ethiopian Airlines pilot requirements. Check EgyptAir’s entry on the jobs board for the latest status.

What we could not confirm

• Researched on 2 November 2026 from search-engine results of the airline’s own careers pages, job postings and industry job boards — not from a direct read of the portal. Confirm the vacancy is still open before you apply.
• Whether an intake is open now
• The age limit: no current notice found; a job board’s older entries (2012, 2019) give 23 at application for high-school graduates and 35 for university graduates
• The English level: no current notice found; a job board’s older entries give ICAO Level 4 for First Officers (2012) and Level 5 for Second Officers (2019), Level 6 preferred
• Whether the type rating still comes with a seven-year contract (a job board’s 2014 entry) and a bond (a forum’s copy of an older notice)
• Whether EgyptAir recruits Captains from outside: no current notice found; a job board’s 2014 entry asked for an ICAO ATPL, 4,000 h and a rating on a type EgyptAir operates

These points are not published clearly by the airline. Treat them as leads, not facts, and confirm them on the careers page: careers page.

Common questions

Is EgyptAir hiring pilots? Unconfirmed at the last check, on 2 November 2026. We found no open EgyptAir pilot vacancy, for First Officers or Captains: its own careers pages could not be read for this check, and the 2026 announcements of the EgyptAir Holding Company that we found were for other posts. Look for a new First Officer notice on EgyptAir’s own pages before you plan around one.

Can a foreigner become an EgyptAir pilot? Not on any current route we found. EgyptAir’s older First Officer notices are for Egyptian nationals with military service completed or exempted, on an Egyptian license, and we found no current Captain notice; a job board’s last Captain entry, from 2014, asked for an ICAO ATPL with 4,000 hours and a rating on a type EgyptAir operates. In the region, Royal Air Maroc recruited pilots from abroad through agencies at its last check, on 2 November 2026, but only pilots already rated on the 737, the 787 or the Embraer E-Jet.

What license do you need to fly for EgyptAir? A commercial pilot license with instrument rating issued by the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority, with all the ATPL theory subjects passed, a frozen ATPL, as older EgyptAir First Officer notices word it, with a Class 1 medical and an Egyptian high-school certificate or its equivalent. The notices we found give no minimum flight hours.

Is there an age limit for EgyptAir First Officers? Not confirmed: we found no current EgyptAir notice that sets one. A job board’s older entries, for First Officers (2012) and Second Officers (2019), give 23 at application for high-school graduates and 35 for university graduates. Read the age condition in the notice you apply to, and check it against your age on the date it names.

Does EgyptAir Training Academy train pilots from zero? No, according to its FAQ, as search results showed it on 2 November 2026: the academy offers no PPL or CPL courses, only type ratings for pilots already licensed, and it does not offer or guarantee jobs. You earn the license through flight training first, then apply to EgyptAir when it advertises First Officer places.