EVA Air Pilot Requirements 2026: Hours, License and Hiring Process

EVA Air, the Taiwanese airline based at Taipei Taoyuan, recruits First Officers through its own careers pages, and at the last check, on 1 November 2026, those pages, as search results showed them, were seeking A321, B777 and B787 First Officers (several editions also the A330) on 4-year contracts, with no posting or closing date shown. The minimums are a valid ICAO, JAA or FAA ATPL; a frozen ATPL is not accepted, with a First Class medical; 2,000 hours total, 500 of them on commercial multi-engine, multi-crew jets above 20 tonnes; and ICAO English Level 4 or FAA English proficiency. EVA publishes no Captain route for pilots from outside. At home, it said in March 2026 that it planned to recruit nearly 160 pilots that year, with applications accepted year-round, and that its trainees join as First Officers after about two years of training. EVA counted 89 aircraft in service on 1 October 2026, 777-300ERs, 787-9s and -10s, A330-300s, A321s and 777 freighters, with 24 A350-1000s and 18 A321neos on order.

Is EVA Air hiring pilots now?

Recruiting at the last check on 1 November 2026 — First Officer seat: Recruiting; Captain seat: Not offered. Seeking A321, B777 and B787 First Officers in Taipei on 4-year contracts: a valid ATPL (not frozen), 2,000 h total and 500 h on multi-crew jets over 20 t; a cadet program in Taiwan taking applications year-round in 2026

Requirements, as published

Reading the requirements line by line

EVA’s careers pages could not be read for this check, so the points below are its regional pilot pages as search results showed them on 1 November 2026. The editions do not all say the same thing, so read the one you apply from, and send technical questions to the recruitment address it gives.

• A full ATPL. A valid ICAO ATPL, JAA ATPL(A) or FAA ATPL, with a First Class medical; a frozen ATPL is not accepted, so a CPL holder with the ATPL theory passed does not qualify yet. Under ICAO Annex 1, the international floor, the airline transport pilot license for airplanes needs at least 1,500 hours of flight time as a pilot of airplanes (2.6.3.1.1). Taiwan announced on 4 November 2025 that it was revising its aviation personnel certification rules to lower the minimum age for the license from 23 to 21, closer to ICAO’s standards (AVweb and AeroTime).
• Two hour counts. 2,000 hours of total flight time, and 500 hours on commercial multi-engine, multi-crew jets with a maximum takeoff weight above 20 tonnes. As worded, time on turboprops or on lighter jets adds only to the 2,000.
• Papers from your past. A no-incident/accident certificate issued by the authority and by your previous employer, and employment references from the aviation industry covering 5 years, or 2 years if you hold a bachelor’s degree.
• English. An ICAO Aviation English certificate at Level 4 or above, or an FAA certificate marked English Proficient. ICAO recommends re-evaluating Level 4 at intervals of no more than three years (the Library’s pilot licensing framework), so check its expiry against your start date.
• The type rating. EVA’s pages, as indexed, do not say whether you must hold a rating on the type you apply for. Rishworth Aviation’s EVA Air page, read on 1 November 2026, said all its EVA pilot jobs were filled and invited type-rated and non-type-rated B787 First Officers who meet or are close to EVA’s requirements to register their interest. For rated pilots it gives 2,000 hours total with 500 on the B777 or B787, or 1,500 with 1,000; for pilots without the rating, 2,000 with 500 on commercial jets over 20 tonnes, as on EVA’s own pages, or 1,500 with 1,000, a pair that EVA’s pages, as indexed, do not offer. The page shows no date. Apply on the figures of the edition you read on evaair.com.
• What the contract offers. A contract period of 4 years, housing support (a rental subsidy or company accommodation), 8 consecutive days off a month and annual leave from 22 days, rising to 42 in the US edition; medical and loss-of-license insurance appear in several editions. The pay is stated differently between editions, so it is among the points we could not confirm.

Entry routes

• Direct entry First Officer A321 / B777 / B787 (several regional pages also list the A330) — EVA’s own pilot pages, 4-year contract
• Direct entry First Officer B787 via Rishworth Aviation — all Rishworth’s EVA pilot jobs were filled on 1 November 2026; it invites type-rated and non-type-rated pilots who meet or are close to EVA’s requirements to register, which it gives as 2,000 h total with 500 h, or 1,500 h with 1,000 h, on the B777/B787 (rated) or on commercial jets over 20 t MTOW (non-rated); undated
• Cadet pilot program in Taiwan — about two years of training in three stages, then First Officer; applications accepted year-round in 2026 (EVA news release, 7 March 2026)
• Direct entry Captain — not published

The cadet route in Taiwan

EVA’s news release of 7 March 2026, issued for its campus recruitment, said the airline planned to recruit nearly 160 pilots in 2026 to match its growing capacity and fleet, accepting applications year-round. Applicants need an English test result from the last two years, a TOEIC score of 650 or more with 140 or more in both the speaking and the writing tests. Those selected train in three stages, ground school, basic flight training, then advanced and type-conversion training, for about two years in all, and join EVA as First Officers. The release, as search results showed it, gives no other eligibility rules, so nationality, degree, age and medical are among the points we could not confirm; it gives no cost or bond either.

EVA Air beside STARLUX and other Asia-Pacific peers

EVA Air beside the airlines it is compared with on our jobs board, as recorded at each airline’s last check:

Read each row with its date. STARLUX, the other Taiwanese airline on the board, had no careers page or dated pilot vacancy in search results: job boards relay undated A330 and A320-family First Officer postings, at 1,500 hours for expatriates with a rating on the type, and Captain postings at 3,500 hours with 700 in command on jets, so its status was unconfirmed (30 October 2026). Cathay Pacific’s Cadet Pilot Programme was open year-round, while its Direct Entry Second and First Officer routes were not hiring (30 October 2026); Singapore Airlines had its ab-initio cadet route open in Singapore, while its fixed-term contracts for A350 and A380 rated First Officers and Captains were closed (30 October 2026); and in the Qantas Group, QantasLink was not accepting pilot applications, while Network Aviation advertised E190 Training and Checking Captains in Perth (23 October 2026). Of the five, EVA was the only one whose own careers pages were seeking direct-entry First Officers at its last check.

Selection process

The airline does not publish its selection stages in detail; expect an online application, screening against the published minimums, an interview and a simulator or aptitude assessment before the medical.

Bases and fleet

Bases: Taipei Taoyuan

Fleet: 89 aircraft in service on 1 October 2026, on EVA’s fleet page: 32 Boeing 777-300ERs, 13 787-10s, 9 787-9s and 9 777F freighters, with 9 Airbus A330-300s and 17 A321-200s (those two rows from the page’s edition of 1 September 2026, also 89 aircraft) · On order: 24 Airbus A350-1000s and 18 A321neos, after EVA firmed six more A350-1000s and three more A321neos in April 2025 (Airbus); the A350-1000s are due from 2027 and the A321neos from 2029 (Taiwan News and Travel Radar, December 2025) · Four more Boeing 787-9s, a purchase of up to NT$60.88 billion approved by EVA’s board on 26 December 2025 (Taiwan News, from the Central News Agency)

How to prepare

EVA hires First Officers onto three types, so start with the one you fly or apply for: the A320 bank below covers the A321 and the Airbus systems logic of its family, and the B787 bank covers the Dreamliner; v1prep has no 777 or A330 bank, so 777 and A330 applicants should revise from their own manuals, and every applicant can use the ATPL theory banks for the performance, meteorology and navigation underneath. EVA does not publish its selection stages, so prepare for the usual shape of an airline assessment, a technical interview and a simulator check, and practice the crew resource management questions with the CRM interview set. Do the paperwork first: your ATPL must be a full one, not frozen; ask the authority that issued your license and your previous employer early for the no-incident/accident certificate the pages ask for; gather employment references from the aviation industry covering 5 years, or 2 if you hold a bachelor’s degree; and total your logbook the way EVA counts it, with your time on multi-engine, multi-crew jets above 20 tonnes on a line of its own. Write the application yourself: the US edition of EVA’s pilot page asks that the résumé and autobiography be your own work, and says AI-generated content it identifies may lead to the cancellation of your eligibility. For the cadet route, the one requirement EVA’s March 2026 release names, as search results showed it, is an English test result from the last two years: a TOEIC score of 650 or more, with 140 or more in both the speaking and the writing tests.

EVA Air has no interview guide on v1prep yet, so for the selection read the complete airline pilot interview guide and the Library’s airline simulator assessment and writing a pilot CV and application. For the 787, start with the Library’s Boeing 787 family and flight deck and 787 flight controls; to count your multi-crew jet time the way EVA does, read flight time logging and recent experience, and for what separates a frozen ATPL from the full license, commercial and airline transport pilot licenses. Other airlines hiring 787 First Officers are on Boeing 787 pilot jobs, the region’s airlines on pilot jobs in Asia-Pacific, and two neighbors on Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines pilot requirements. Check EVA Air’s entry on the jobs board for the latest status.

What we could not confirm

• Researched on 1 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 non-type-rated First Officers are accepted on EVA’s own route: its pages do not say, while Rishworth Aviation’s EVA Air page gives separate minimums for non-type-rated B787 First Officers (all its EVA pilot jobs were filled on 1 November 2026)
• Who obtains the work permit: EVA’s pilot pages, as search results showed them, do not mention the visa or the work permit; a job board, PilotsGlobal, marks its copies of EVA First Officer postings “Visa sponsorship: Provided”, a listing field of its own, not EVA’s wording
• The pay package, which EVA’s regional pages state differently (above USD 100,000 a year from the first operational flight on some, a monthly figure in New Taiwan dollars on others)
• An age limit: older job-board copies of EVA First Officer postings, one of them for Rishworth’s holding pool, give under 45 at the start of the contract; EVA’s own pages, as indexed, give none
• Who may apply to the cadet program (nationality, degree, age and medical): EVA’s March 2026 release, as search results showed it, names only the English test
• The selection stages, which EVA does not publish

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 EVA Air hiring pilots? Yes, for First Officers, at the last check, on 1 November 2026: EVA’s own careers pages, as search results showed them, were seeking A321, B777 and B787 First Officers based in Taipei on 4-year contracts, with no posting or closing date shown. EVA also said in March 2026 that it would accept pilot applications year-round in 2026 and train its recruits for about two years before they join as First Officers. It publishes no Captain route for pilots from outside.

What are the requirements to become an EVA Air First Officer? A valid ICAO ATPL, JAA ATPL(A) or FAA ATPL with a First Class medical, a frozen ATPL not accepted; 2,000 hours total, including 500 on commercial multi-engine, multi-crew jets above 20 tonnes maximum takeoff weight; ICAO English Level 4 or FAA English proficiency; a no-incident/accident certificate from the authority and your previous employer; and employment references covering 5 years in aviation, or 2 with a bachelor’s degree (EVA’s pilot pages, as search results showed them on 1 November 2026).

Does EVA Air require a type rating? EVA’s own pilot pages, as search results showed them, do not say. Rishworth Aviation’s EVA Air page gives separate minimums for type-rated and non-type-rated B787 First Officers, but said on 1 November 2026 that all its EVA pilot jobs were filled, so whether EVA trains a pilot without the rating is among the points we could not confirm. Ask EVA’s pilot recruitment team before you apply.

Does EVA Air sponsor the visa for foreign pilots? EVA does not say. Its own pilot pages, as search results showed them on 1 November 2026, do not mention the visa or the work permit. A job board marks its copies of EVA First Officer postings as offering visa sponsorship, but that is the job board’s own listing field, not EVA’s wording, so ask EVA’s pilot recruitment team who obtains the work permit before you sign.

What does EVA Air offer its First Officers? A contract period of 4 years, housing support (a rental subsidy or company accommodation), 8 consecutive days off a month and annual leave from 22 days. The pay is stated differently on EVA’s regional pages: above USD 100,000 a year from the first operational flight on some, a monthly figure in New Taiwan dollars on others, so check the edition you apply from.