How to Become an Airline Pilot in Italy: License, Cost and Airlines
Italy licenses its airline pilots through the Ente Nazionale per l’Aviazione Civile (ENAC), the national civil aviation authority, under the EASA rules every member state shares: a Class 1 medical first, then an integrated course, the modular route or an airline’s MPL, to a commercial license with an instrument rating and the ATPL exams passed, the “frozen ATPL” airlines hire on. ENAC sets the ATPL theory exams on a computer, in English, from EASA’s central question bank, in Rome and at Milan Malpensa; ITA Airways has announced a 21-month MPL to train its own pilots, for which you need excellent Italian and the DLR aptitude certificate. The route every EASA state shares, hour by hour, is on our Europe page; this one is about what is Italian: ENAC, its medical centers and its exams, the cadet routes and the aptitude test, the airlines that fly from Italy and the Italian they ask, the money and the Aeronautica Militare.
1. The Class 1 medical, at an ENAC-certified center
The Class 1 medical is the certificate the commercial license, the MPL and the ATPL all need, so get it before you pay for any training. ENAC’s aviation medicine pages say the first Class 1 can be done only at an aero-medical center (AeMC) that holds ENAC’s AeMC certificate, and that a renewal can be done by any aero-medical examiner (AME) qualified for Class 1; ENAC publishes the list of certified examiners and centers, “AME e AeMC – Elenco Medici certificati”, with its own date of last update (7 October 2026, read on 27 October 2026). Its list of certified centers dated 3 September 2026 names four: three run by the Air Force (its aerospace medicine institutes, IMAS, in Rome and at Milan Linate, and its aero-medical center at the Bari-Palese military airport) and one other, CAVOK, at Lonate Pozzolo in the province of Varese; pick yours from the current list on ENAC’s site. The certificate lasts 12 months, and 6 from the age of 60, or from 40 in single-pilot commercial air transport with passengers (MED.A.045, step 1 of the Europe page), and a Class 1 issued in another EASA state is valid in Italy.
The DLR certificate is not a medical. ITA’s MPL asks for it: it is an aptitude test, and ITA does not name a medical class in its announcement, though every EASA commercial license and the MPL need the Class 1. The medical certification article explains the classes and the examination.
2. Schools, cadet routes and the aptitude test
The routes are EASA’s. An integrated course at an approved training organization (ATO) has at least 750 hours of theory and 195 hours of flight training, of which up to 55 may be instrument time in a ground trainer, and the modular route needs 150 hours of flight time, 50 of them in command of airplanes, before the commercial course’s flying starts (Part-FCL Appendix 3, paragraphs A and E); the MPL is run for an airline. Step 2 of the Europe page sets out each route. ENAC’s pilot page (read on 27 October 2026) adds that the integrated course leads to the commercial license with the ATPL theory credit, and that you first pass the school’s own test in mathematics, physics and English. ENAC publishes the list of approved training organizations for the commercial licenses, so check a school on it, and ask the school where its students sit the exams. These are the doors the Italian airlines, and the airlines that fly from Italy, name:
- ITA Airways’ MPL. ITA announced on 16 July 2026 its first Multi Pilot License courses, for about 280 pilots over four years, each course 21 months long, with selection from July 2026 and the first courses from October 2026, for candidates with no flying experience or only a little (checked 12 October 2026); its release asks that you are at least 17, hold an upper-secondary diploma (diploma di scuola secondaria di secondo grado) or an equivalent, have the DLR certificate, and have an excellent command of spoken and written Italian and of English, and it names no ICAO level and no upper age limit (checked 12 October 2026); ITA says it is the only company certified in Italy to run MPL courses, and that it selects its candidates in-house (checked 12 October 2026); the application page its release linked was unavailable on 25 August 2026, and ITA has published no date for a further intake (checked 12 October 2026). Who pays for the course, the cost of about EUR 135,000 that Italian media report, a job at the end of it and the role trade reports give Urbe Aero Flight Academy in the first flying phases are among the points we could not confirm for ITA; watch ITA’s careers site for the next intake.
- The DLR test. The German Aerospace Center’s (DLR) computer-based aptitude test can be sat in Milan as well as in Hamburg and Zurich, with identical contents and certificate wherever you take it; it costs EUR 427, paid by you, every candidate receives a certificate graded A to D that can also be used to apply elsewhere, and the DLR says it is valid for 2 years (the European Flight Academy’s FAQ, read on 24 October 2026); the Lufthansa Group’s school asks you to book it before you apply, and ITA’s MPL asks for it. Book it so that it is still valid on your selection day. The pilot aptitude tests article explains what such tests measure.
- Aeroitalia, which our jobs board does not track, announced in July 2026 an ATPL Mentored Cadet Programme with Urbe Aero Flight Academy in Rome: the integrated ATPL course at Urbe Aero, then the airline pilot standards MCC and the type rating with Aeroitalia Aviation Academy, after which Aeroitalia may place the cadets it selects on its Boeing 737s for their first 500 hours, if they keep its performance standards throughout; the selection, run by the school and the airline together with online tests, a group exercise and interviews in person at Aeroitalia Aviation Academy, was to open on 1 September and the course to start on 15 October 2026. A second pipeline is for students on a standard ATPL course, or through one, whom Urbe Aero puts forward: Aeroitalia Aviation Academy assesses them on their ATPL results, the same online tests, a group exercise and an interview, and sends those it accepts on to the MCC and the type rating (Italiavola, 13 July 2026, and Avvenire, 28 July 2026, read on 27 October 2026). We found no entry requirements or price for either, so ask the school.
- Wizz Air’s Pathway Program with Urbe Aero is still listed on its job board, but the listing’s content dates from 2024, with course starts in September and December 2024 and no 2026 intake date (checked 12 October 2026).
- Air Dolomiti announced in October 2018 a flight academy with Lufthansa’s training center and the European Flight Academy, with scholarships toward the cost (Italiavola, 24 October 2018, read on 27 October 2026); in search results on 26 October 2026 we found no current intake. For Neos we found no cadet program at all in search results, so ask the airline before you plan around one.
Before your first multi-pilot type rating you also need a multi-crew cooperation (MCC) course, on an integrated course at least 25 hours of theory and exercises (Appendix 3, paragraph A.7.1), and the upset prevention and recovery training of FCL.745.A. The MCC courses article explains them, and the cadet programs page compares who pays on each airline scheme.
3. The ATPL exams at ENAC, in English
The ATPL theory papers, the 75% pass mark and the time limits (every paper within 18 months, in no more than six sittings and four attempts at any one) are EASA’s (FCL.025), set out in step 3 of the Europe page and in our ATPL exams guide; once passed, the theory counts for 36 months toward the commercial license or instrument rating, and toward the ATPL for seven years from the last validity date of an instrument rating in your license. What is Italian is where and how you sit them, as ENAC’s own pages set them out on 27 October 2026:
- On a computer, in English. ENAC holds the ATPL, CPL, IR and BIR theory exams by computer, in English, with multiple-choice questions drawn from EASA’s European Central Question Bank (ECQB).
- Rome and Malpensa. The exams are run by ENAC’s flight personnel directorate in two places: its offices at Via Gaeta 3 in Rome, and a room at ENAC’s territorial office at Milan Malpensa, near Terminal 1. ENAC publishes a calendar of sessions for each year, most of them in Rome; in 2026 most sessions showed as fully booked and ENAC added extra ones in Rome (the latest, announced on 22 October 2026, on 21-23 December), and its exam page already links the 2027 calendar, so book early and check the calendar on ENAC’s site, which marks the full sessions.
- Booking and the fee. How you book and sit the exams is set out in ENAC’s instruction ITO 2024/02-LIC. Since 1 July 2025, under ENAC’s new fee regulation, you pay EUR 40 for each subject, plus costs and the stamp duty (bollo), and a subject you fail is paid for again.
- English for the license. A pilot who uses the radio needs a language proficiency endorsement at ICAO Level 4 or above, in English or the language used on the radio (FCL.055, the Europe page). ENAC lists the centers it has certified for language exams in English and, separately, in Italian, under its procedure NI-2020-027 of 30 July 2020, and since 30 August 2022 it has accepted online tests by language testing bodies approved by an EASA member state, if your identity and the test’s security are guaranteed throughout. For the private licenses, ENAC’s exam is taken whole in one session, separate subjects being accepted only for retakes and for the radiotelephony tests in English or Italian, and it is held in Italian, or in English if the school asks, at ENAC’s territorial offices in Rome and at the Malpensa, Venice Tessera, Ancona Falconara and Taranto Grottaglie airports. What the airlines ask of your Italian is in step 6.
4. From license to first job
You leave training with a frozen ATPL or an MPL, either of which can become a full ATPL once you have 1,500 hours in airplanes, 500 of them in multi-pilot operations and up to 100 of them in simulators, and pass the ATPL skill test (FCL.510.A and FCL.520.A, in EASA’s online rules, read on 24 October 2026; step 4 of the Europe page). Airlines hire long before that. Where the doors were at the last check:
- ITA Airways also hires type-rated First Officers in campaigns: one published on its own site on 19 December 2025, as QuiFinanza and qds.it reported it, asked for 500 hours on the A320 family or the A220, simulator excluded, or 500 hours on an EASA-rated airplane over 30 tonnes, for Rome Fiumicino and Milan Linate, and had closed by 25 August 2026 (checked 12 October 2026).
- ITA publishes no direct-entry Captain route (checked 12 October 2026).
- ITA says its only official channels for applications are the “Work with Us” page of ita-airways.com and the job offers on its LinkedIn page, and that agencies or job boards asking for fees are not official.
Airlines based elsewhere fly from Italy too. easyJet, listed under the UK, names Italy among its base countries and holds its direct-entry assessment centers at its training centers in London Gatwick or Milan (checked 12 October 2026); Wizz Air, listed under Hungary, showed assessment events in Rome for Wizz Air Malta on its pilot jobs page on 25 August 2026, their dates printed without a year (checked 12 October 2026); Vueling, listed under Spain, names Rome Fiumicino and Florence among its bases (checked 12 October 2026); Ryanair, listed under Ireland, publishes no full list of its pilot bases, and Bergamo appears in its record only for its Challenger business-jet vacancies (checked 12 October 2026). Their requirement pages set out each one’s minimums. The low-hour pilot jobs page lists every airline on our board with a First or Second Officer entry at 500 hours or less, and the non-type-rated First Officer jobs page who trains you on type, in Italy and beyond.
5. The Italian airlines, and what they ask
The one airline on our jobs board based in Italy is ITA Airways, shown as it stood at the date in the last column; its First Officer seat was not confirmed open at the last check. ITA Airways had no pilot application open on 25 August 2026, and a search on 12 October 2026 found none (checked 12 October 2026). ITA flies the A220, the A320neo family, the A330-900neo and the A350-900. Other airlines based in Italy, Aeroitalia, Air Dolomiti and Neos among them, are not on our board, so read their own careers pages; the airlines based elsewhere that fly from Italy are in step 4. The ITA Airways requirements page sets out its terms line by line, and the ITA Airways interview guide covers its selection.
Always confirm on the airline’s own careers page before applying. Every figure here is what the airline published at the date shown against it on our jobs board; entries marked Unconfirmed are ones whose requirements we found but whose current vacancy status we could not establish from the airline’s own pages. Vacancies open and close without notice.
| Airline | Published minimum | F/O seat | Captain seat | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ITA Airways Unconfirmed | None · no prior flying experience needed | Unconfirmed | Not offered | 12 October 2026 |
6. Right to work, Italian, foreign licenses and the Air Force
The right to work comes first. ITA Airways publishes no nationality, residence or visa requirement for its MPL, and its Italian-language requirement is the only published constraint (checked 12 October 2026). Of the airlines that fly from Italy under another country, easyJet sets the right to work per vacancy, and its cadet page asks for an unrestricted right to live and work in the UK, the EU or Switzerland (checked 12 October 2026); Wizz Air an unrestricted right to live and work in the EU or in one of the other countries it lists, with no visa sponsorship (checked 12 October 2026); Ryanair an unrestricted right to live and work in the EU for its Buzz and Lauda roles (checked 12 October 2026). The visa sponsorship page lists the airlines that sponsor one, worldwide.
Italian is the second filter. The license and ENAC’s exams need English, but ITA Airways asks for excellent spoken and written Italian, and excellent English, without naming an ICAO level, so a pilot without Italian is filtered out on its cadet route (checked 12 October 2026). The airlines based elsewhere that fly from Italy name no Italian in their records, only English: easyJet asks for ICAO English at Level 4; Ryanair ICAO English at Level 4, written as well as spoken; Wizz Air ICAO English at Level 4, 5 or 6. ENAC certifies language centers for Italian as well as English (step 3), so ask a center which scale its test uses: the ICAO levels 4 to 6 of the language proficiency endorsement, or the European (CEFR) levels of a general language certificate.
A license from another EASA state is valid in Italy without conversion (step 6 of the Europe page). A license from outside the EASA system is converted under Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/723, through the authority of the state where you live or want to work, which for a pilot hired in Italy means ENAC; a UK license has counted as a third-country license since 1 January 2021 (EASA’s licensing and Brexit FAQs). FAA vs EASA covers the FAA conversion in both directions.
The military route runs through the Air Force, the Aeronautica Militare, and its Academy (Accademia Aeronautica) at Pozzuoli, near Naples. Its competition for the 2026-27 academic year offered 155 places in the first year of its regular courses, 60 of them for pilots in the flying branch (ruolo naviganti normale), for Italian citizens who had turned 17 and not yet 22 on the closing date, with an upper-secondary diploma or one due that school year; applications closed in January 2026. The selection ran from a written preselection test and an English test to medical and psycho-physical examinations, physical tests, aptitude and behavioral assessments, a short essay in Italian and an oral mathematics exam (the Ministry of Defence’s decree of 14 August 2026 approving the pilots’ ranking, and the notice’s terms as concorsipubblici.com and LiveUniversity reproduced them, read on 27 October 2026). Read the next notice on the Ministry’s competitions portal, concorsi.difesa.it, before you plan around it. Military flying is credited toward a Part-FCL license under Article 10 of the Aircrew Regulation, on a credit report by the authority of the state where the pilot served (EASA’s licensing FAQ).
7. Money and time
| Stage | Approximate cost | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 medical, initial, at an AeMC | Not quoted here: ask the AeMC on ENAC’s list | Before you commit to training |
| DLR aptitude test | EUR 427, paid by you (the European Flight Academy’s FAQ, read on 24 October 2026) | Before you apply, where the airline asks for it; valid 2 years |
| Integrated course, zero to frozen ATPL | Not quoted here: we found no Italian school’s published price list on 26 October 2026, only guides’ estimates. The Europe page sets out two EASA schools’ published prices, in Ireland and Germany | Set by each school: ask for the course length in writing |
| Airline cadet course | ITA’s MPL: not published by ITA; the figure of about EUR 135,000 that Italian media report, and who pays it, are among the points we could not confirm | 21 months, by ITA’s release of 16 July 2026 |
| ENAC theory exams | EUR 40 a subject, plus costs and stamp duty, paid again for a failed subject (ENAC’s fee regulation, in force since 1 July 2025, as ENAC’s exam page set it out on 27 October 2026) | During training |
| Type rating | Varies: part of ITA’s MPL, whose payer ITA does not state; yours to bring on ITA’s direct-entry campaigns, which asked for a rating on the A320 family or the A220 (step 4) | In the airline’s training, after selection |
| Frozen ATPL to full ATPL | Paid: you are flying for an airline | Until 1,500 hours, 500 of them multi-pilot (FCL.510.A) |
Funding in Italy. Sardinia’s regional employment agency (ASPAL) called in June 2026 for approved training organizations to join its 2026 catalog of ATPL courses, the first step of a trial scheme of training vouchers for unemployed residents of Sardinia aged 18 to 30, with EUR 2 million in all, under a regional decision of 8 October 2025; the vouchers themselves, and who can have one, are to be set by a later public notice, from which a holder chooses a course in the catalog (the agency’s call, read on 27 October 2026). Watch the agency’s site for that notice. We found no national scheme for pilot training.
Ask every school what its price includes: the theory and flying phases, the MCC or airline pilot standards MCC, the upset training course, ENAC’s exam and license fees, the Class 1, accommodation and the type rating, and what happens to the money you have paid if you, or the school, stop. On a cadet route, ask too who pays, what you owe if you leave or fail, and on what terms a job follows.
Common questions
How long does it take to become an airline pilot in Italy? As long as your school’s course, plus the airline selection: the ATPL theory alone must be passed within 18 months of your first paper (FCL.025), and Italian schools set their own course lengths; ITA Airways’ MPL lasts 21 months, by its release of July 2026. The frozen license can become a full ATPL once you have 1,500 hours, 500 of them multi-pilot, and pass the ATPL skill test (FCL.510.A and FCL.520.A), and airlines hire before that.
How much does pilot training cost in Italy? We found no Italian school’s published price list in October 2026, so this page quotes no Italian range; the Europe page sets out two EASA schools’ published prices. ITA’s MPL: not published by ITA; the figure of about EUR 135,000 that Italian media report, and who pays it, are among the points we could not confirm. Add the DLR test (EUR 427) where an airline asks for it, and ENAC’s exam fee of EUR 40 a subject since July 2025. Ask every school what its price includes, and who pays for the type rating.
Do I need to speak Italian to become a pilot in Italy? Not for the license: ENAC sets the ATPL, CPL and IR exams in English, and the radio needs English at ICAO Level 4 or above. The airlines are another matter: ITA Airways asks for excellent spoken and written Italian, and excellent English, without naming an ICAO level, so a pilot without Italian is filtered out on its cadet route, while easyJet asks for ICAO English at Level 4; Ryanair ICAO English at Level 4, written as well as spoken; Wizz Air ICAO English at Level 4, 5 or 6.
Where do I sit the ATPL exams in Italy? With ENAC, on a computer, in English, with questions from EASA’s central question bank: at its offices at Via Gaeta 3 in Rome or at its room at Milan Malpensa, near Terminal 1, on the dates of its yearly calendar, as ENAC’s pages set them out on 27 October 2026. You pay EUR 40 a subject, plus costs and stamp duty. All the papers must be passed within 18 months, in no more than six sittings and four attempts at any one (FCL.025).
How do I become a pilot with ITA Airways? Through its MPL cadet course or, with a type rating, its First Officer campaigns: for the MPL, ITA asks that you are at least 17, with an upper-secondary diploma, the DLR certificate and excellent Italian and English; its First Officer campaign of December 2025, as QuiFinanza and qds.it reported it, asked for 500 hours on the A320 family or the A220, or on an EASA-rated airplane over 30 tonnes. The status at the last check: ITA Airways had no pilot application open on 25 August 2026, and a search on 12 October 2026 found none. Apply only through ITA’s own careers site or its LinkedIn page.
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