How to Become an Airline Pilot in the UK: Licence, Cost and Airlines

The UK route runs to a UK CAA licence: a Class 1 medical first, then either a full-time integrated course (about 18 months at Skyborne, for one) or the modular route taken stage by stage, to a commercial licence with an instrument rating and the ATPL theory passed, the “frozen ATPL” the UK airlines hire from. Two schools’ published prices for an integrated course span about £95,000 to £115,000 (13 October 2026; the cheaper school was not taking new ATPL applications), and the licence becomes a full ATPL at 1,500 hours. The UK left the EASA system on 31 December 2020, so a UK licence and an EASA licence are now two different documents, and the UK airlines ask for the UK one.

1. The Class 1 medical, first

Get the Class 1 medical before you pay for any training. It is the certificate a commercial licence, an MPL and an ATPL all need, and the examination tells you early whether your eyesight, hearing or medical history will be a problem. In the UK the first (initial) Class 1 examination must be done at a CAA-approved Aero-Medical Centre (AeMC); the CAA’s Class 1 page lists the current centres. Revalidations and renewals can be done at an AeMC or by an Aero-Medical Examiner (AME) with Class 1 privileges; a revalidation taken up to 45 days before the expiry date loses no validity.

A UK Class 1 lasts 12 months, and 6 months from the age of 60, or from 40 for a pilot flying single-pilot commercial air transport with passengers (MED.A.045 of UK Part-MED, as the CAA’s Class 1 page and its medical certificate validity table set it out):

A First Officer on a multi-crew jet therefore renews every year until 60. The airlines check it: Jet2 asked for at least six months of validity at your start date, and easyJet’s and Virgin Atlantic’s postings for a UK CAA Class 1, at the last check. The medical certification article explains the classes and the examination.

2. Integrated, modular or MPL: the routes to the licence

The UK kept the European licensing rules when it left the EASA system, as UK Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011 (its Part-FCL), so the routes are the familiar three. Whichever you take, you finish with a commercial pilot licence (CPL) with a multi-engine instrument rating and all the ATPL theory passed, or an MPL. The minimum age for a CPL is 18.

• Integrated: one continuous full-time course at an Approved Training Organisation (ATO), from no experience to the frozen ATPL. The rule sets at least 195 hours of flying training, progress tests included, of which up to 55 may be instrument time in a ground trainer (Appendix 3 to UK Part-FCL). Skyborne, for example, puts its course at about 18 months: 28 weeks of theory in the UK, the single-engine flying in Vero Beach, Florida, then the multi-engine instrument rating and the multi-crew course back in the UK.
• Modular: the same licence in stages, often while working: a private licence, hour building, the ATPL theory course, the CPL course, the instrument rating and a multi-crew course. You need 150 hours of flight time before you start the CPL course (the CAA’s CPL page). You choose the schools and pay as you go, and it takes as long as your money and time allow.
• MPL (multi-crew pilot licence): a course that trains you as the co-pilot of a multi-pilot aeroplane from the start, with at least 240 hours of flying training, as pilot flying and pilot not flying, in the aeroplane and the simulator. Minimum age 18. An MPL carries no private pilot privileges and its instrument rating covers multi-pilot operations only, so you cannot fly for leisure on it (the CAA’s MPL page). The UK MPL schemes on our jobs board, easyJet’s and TUI’s, are airline cadet schemes.
• Cadet schemes sit on top of these routes: an airline selects you first and a partner school trains you. At the last check the UK schemes on our jobs board were British Airways’ Speedbird Pilot Academy, BA’s funded cadet route; easyJet’s Generation easyJet MPL with CAE and its FlightCrew Futures integrated course with Skyborne, which includes the A320 type rating; and Jet2FlightPath. TUI ran no MPL cadet intake in 2026. easyJet asks its cadets to be at least 18 at the start of the course, with no upper age limit, and to hold the unrestricted right to live and work in the UK, the EU or Switzerland. The cadet programmes page compares who pays.

Before your first multi-pilot type rating you also need a multi-crew co-operation (MCC) course: at least 25 hours of theory and 20 hours of practical training (15 on an integrated course) in a simulator. The CAA also approves a longer Airline Pilot Standards MCC, a further 20 hours, with swept-wing jet training, airline scenarios and a final assessment. Ask your school which one its price includes.

3. The ATPL theory exams

The ATPL theory is the largest block of study: 13 exams, from air law, meteorology and navigation to aircraft systems, performance, flight planning and human performance, with communications as a single paper. UK schools prepare you for 13 (Bristol Groundschool and Skyborne, for two); the CAA’s own ATPL page still lists VFR and IFR communications separately, as the old syllabus had them, so you may also see 14 quoted. You need 75% to pass each paper. The CAA runs the exams itself, in English only. You book them through your CAA Customer Portal account and sit them on the dates of the CAA’s exam timetable, at its own exam centre at Aviation House, Gatwick, or at an approved venue, several of them at training schools.

• The time limits (FCL.025 of the UK regulation): pass every paper within 18 months from the end of the month of your first attempt, in no more than six sittings and no more than four attempts at any one paper. Miss any of these and you sit the whole set again.
• Validity: your passes count for 36 months towards the issue of a CPL or an instrument rating, from the day you pass the last paper (FCL.025, as the CAA relays it). Once you hold an instrument rating, they count towards the ATPL for 7 years from the last validity date of that rating (the CAA’s ATPL page).
• English: your licence also needs an English language proficiency assessment. Level 4 is reassessed every 4 years, Level 5 every 6, and Level 6 not at all (the CAA’s language proficiency page). The UK airlines ask for more than the minimum: Jet2 Level 5, British Airways’ Euroflyer and Virgin Atlantic Level 6, at the last check.

The UK and EASA exams are separate systems now. If you may want to work in the EU later, ask about a dual UK and EASA course: some schools train for both licences. Our ATPL exams guide walks through the subjects one by one.

4. From licence to first job

You leave training with a “frozen” ATPL: a CPL with a multi-engine instrument rating and all the ATPL theory passed. It becomes a full ATPL when you are 21, have 1,500 hours, including 500 in multi-pilot operations, 250 as pilot in command (or 500 as pilot in command under supervision, or a mix with at least 70 in command), 200 cross-country, 75 instrument and 100 at night, and pass the ATPL skill test as pilot in command of a multi-pilot aeroplane under IFR (the CAA’s ATPL page). The UK airlines hire long before that, on the frozen licence.

Where the first jobs were at the last check:

• Jet2 publishes the lowest entry, a Second Officer route from 100 hours on multi-engine multi-crew aircraft with a frozen ATPL or an MPL, and First Officer entry from 500 hours on multi-crew aircraft over 10 tonnes (21 September 2026).
• British Airways recruits in campaigns: BA Euroflyer at Gatwick ran a 2026 First Officer campaign for rated and non-rated pilots, closed by 30 June 2026; every BA pilot vacancy we found on 12 October 2026 had closed.
• easyJet describes a non-rated co-pilot route, joining as Second Officer, First Officer or Senior First Officer by experience, but had no First Officer vacancy on 12 October 2026. Graduates of its partner schools (CAE, Skyborne, Acron Aviation Academy, FTE Jerez, Leading Edge, Urbe Aero) may be offered places “should we have additional vacancies”, which easyJet says are not guaranteed.
• Loganair has a non-rated “Newly Qualified First Officer” listing on its recruitment site, but whether it is current was unclear on 21 September 2026.

Instructing builds hours, but not the multi-crew time that Jet2’s and Virgin Atlantic’s First Officer minimums count: Jet2’s 500 hours are on multi-crew aircraft over 10 tonnes, and Virgin Atlantic’s 1,500 on multi-pilot aircraft of at least 10 tonnes. The low-hour pilot jobs page lists every airline on our board that takes First Officers under 500 hours, in the UK and beyond.

5. The UK airlines, and what they ask

The UK airlines on our jobs board, each as it stood at the date in the last column. The doors differ more than the licence: Jet2 publishes the lowest entry, a Second Officer route from 100 hours; British Airways recruits in campaigns; easyJet’s only vacancies at its last check, on 12 October 2026, were for Captains; Virgin Atlantic wants 1,500 hours on multi-pilot aircraft and a current Airbus rating; Loganair was taking Direct Entry Captains; and TUI ran no MPL cadet intake in 2026. For their UK flying, all but TUI, which also hires for its EU operators and accepts an EASA licence, want the right to live and work in the UK and a UK CAA licence. Each airline’s page sets out its requirements line by line, and the interview guides for British Airways, easyJet, Jet2 and Virgin Atlantic cover their selections.

6. Foreign pilots and licence conversions

The right to work comes first. The UK airlines on our jobs board ask for the right to live and work in the UK; easyJet’s Gatwick roles add unrestricted access across the UK, the EEA and its network, and TUI, which also hires for its EU operators, asks for the right to work in the country of the operator you join. None of their records mentions visa sponsorship.

Then the licence. A UK airline wants a UK licence, so an EASA, FAA or other licence has to be converted. The CAA’s simplified route for EASA licences closed at the end of 2022, together with the savings provisions that let it accept EU training: since 1 January 2023 an EASA licence holder applies through the CAA’s third-country route like any other foreign pilot, and may keep the EASA licence alongside the UK one. The CAA checks the foreign licence with the authority that issued it, and you need a UK Class 1 medical. An EASA licence holder is credited with the radiotelephony licence and the English proficiency held on the EASA licence, as long as the proficiency has not expired; a holder of another ICAO licence gets no English proficiency credit, is assessed by a method the CAA accepts, and needs a UK radiotelephony licence (FRTOL) before the skill test.

The theory credit depends on the licence you hold and on your instrument rating, and the CAA’s conversion page sets out the routes: where it gives no credit, you sit the UK exams, and an ICAO licence holder with no ATPL theory credit also completes an approved ATPL theory course. Bristol Groundschool, which trains conversion candidates, describes the path for an ICAO ATPL holder with a valid multi-pilot type rating the CAA recognises as the 13 UK exams and a UK skill test, without the approved course. Read the CAA’s conversion page for your own case. The FAA and EASA licences compared covers the two other big systems.

7. Money and time

Check what each price includes. Skyborne’s includes self-catered accommodation for the whole course but not your living costs; Acron’s includes the flights and visas for its Florida training and the licence fees, but not accommodation or the medical. Ask every school about exam fees, the MCC course and the type rating, and what happens to the money you have paid if you, or the school, stop. Skyborne also sells an optional University of West London degree alongside its course.

Funded places exist but are few and competitive. British Airways’ Speedbird Pilot Academy is BA’s funded cadet route. Leading Edge Aviation’s 2026 scheme funded up to 82% of a dual UK and EASA frozen ATPL for 16 trainees, with a three-year instructor job with the school guaranteed at the end (applications ran from 13 to 28 February 2026). The Honourable Company of Air Pilots and the Air League run yearly flying scholarship rounds; the Air Pilots awarded 13 PPL scholarships in 2025.

Common questions

How long does it take to become an airline pilot in the UK? About 18 months on a full-time integrated course, by Skyborne’s estimate, to a frozen ATPL; the modular route takes longer, at your own pace. Airline selection follows, and the licence becomes a full ATPL once you are 21 and have 1,500 hours, 500 of them in multi-pilot operations.

How much does it cost to become an airline pilot in the UK? About £95,000 to £115,000 for an integrated course, on two schools’ published prices on 13 October 2026: Skyborne £114,950, and Acron Aviation Academy from £94,500, though Acron was not taking new ATPL applications. Living costs and anything the price leaves out come on top. The modular route spreads the cost over time. Who pays for the type rating varies by airline and stream, so ask, and ask whether it is bonded.

Can I fly for a UK airline with an EASA licence? Not on the EASA licence alone at most of them: the UK airlines on our jobs board ask for a UK CAA licence, and easyJet’s Gatwick vacancies say so outright, while TUI accepts an EASA licence for its EU operators. Since 1 January 2023 an EASA licence holder converts through the CAA’s third-country route and can keep the EASA licence alongside the UK one.

Where do I get a Class 1 medical in the UK? The first Class 1 examination must be done at a CAA-approved Aero-Medical Centre (AeMC), listed on the CAA’s website; revalidations and renewals can be done at an AeMC or by an Aero-Medical Examiner with Class 1 privileges. The certificate lasts 12 months, and 6 months from the age of 60, or from 40 for a pilot flying single-pilot commercial air transport with passengers.

What is a frozen ATPL? A commercial pilot licence with a multi-engine instrument rating and all the ATPL theory exams passed. It becomes a full ATPL when you are 21, have 1,500 hours including 500 in multi-pilot operations, and pass the ATPL skill test. UK airlines hire on it: Jet2 takes a frozen ATPL or an MPL for its Second Officer route, and Virgin Atlantic accepts a frozen ATPL with a current Airbus rating.