How to Become an Airline Pilot: The Route Every Country Shares, Step by Step

Every airline pilot, in every licensing system, follows the same route: a Class 1 medical, a commercial pilot license with a multi-engine instrument rating (or a multi-crew license) and the airline transport theory, the hours that the airline or the law asks for, and a type rating on the airline’s aircraft. ICAO Annex 1 sets the floor every state builds on, 18 years and 200 hours of flight time for the commercial license (150 on an approved course) and 21 years and 1,500 hours for the airline transport pilot license, and the systems part ways over the hours: European and UK airlines hire on a “frozen” ATPL long before 1,500 hours, while every pilot of a US Part 121 airline needs the ATP certificate first. Two schools’ published prices put the training at about USD 94,000 to 124,000 from zero to flight instructor in the USA in 2026, in 9 to 15 months, and about £95,000 to £115,000 for a UK integrated course to the frozen ATPL, in about 16 to 18 months; step 7 says what each price leaves out. This page sets the shared route beside the rules of ICAO, EASA, the FAA and the countries our guides cover; each country guide then goes into its own.

The systems at a glance

ICAO Annex 1 sets the minimum standards, and each authority writes its own rules on top, so a license is issued under one system and has to be converted to fly under another. The figures are each authority’s own minimums, as our country guides give them with their sources; the airlines’ own minimums are in step 5.

Australia’s CPL and ATPL hours come from search-engine copies of CASA’s pages, as on the Australia guide; we found no ATPL age in the Indian rule text we could read. For the EASA states, FAA vs EASA sets the two largest systems side by side.

1. The Class 1 medical, first

Book the medical before you pay for any training. ICAO Annex 1 asks for a Class 1 medical assessment for the commercial, multi-crew and airline transport pilot licenses, made by doctors the state designates, and the examination is where a problem with your eyesight, hearing or medical history shows up: better found now than after the money is spent. Annex 1 makes it valid for 12 months, and 6 past the age of 60 for a pilot in commercial air transport, or past 40 in single-pilot commercial air transport with passengers.

Under EASA’s Part-MED the first Class 1 must be done at an aero-medical center, and renewals can also be done by an aero-medical examiner; it lasts 12 months, and 6 from the age of 60, or from 40 in single-pilot commercial air transport with passengers (MED.A.045). In the United States an Aviation Medical Examiner issues the First Class certificate after an online application in MedXPress. The rule asks for it for an ATP’s command privileges, and for them it lasts 12 months if you were under 40 at the examination and 6 months from 40; a Second Class covers commercial privileges, and a Part 121 First Officer’s until 60, except on flag or supplemental flights with three or more pilots (14 CFR 61.23). 18 of the 21 US airlines on our jobs board ask for a First Class all the same. The table above gives each country’s rule, and each guide names the doctors and centers.

The medical certification article explains what the examination looks at, and FAA medical certificates explained covers the US classes.

2. The commercial license: integrated, modular or MPL

The license that lets you be paid to fly is the commercial pilot license (CPL), and the airlines want it with a multi-engine instrument rating. ICAO Annex 1 sets its floor at 18 years and 200 hours of flight time, or 150 on an approved course. The ways to it:

• Integrated: one continuous full-time course at an approved training organization, from no experience to the commercial license, the instrument rating and the airline theory. Under EASA’s Part-FCL an integrated ATP course has at least 195 hours of flying training (Appendix 3).
• Modular: the same license in stages, a private license, hour building, the theory course, the commercial course and the instrument rating, often while working; you choose the schools and pay as you go. Under Part-FCL you need 150 hours of flight time before the modular commercial course starts.
• The American way: the certificates one at a time, private, instrument and commercial, under Part 61 with any authorized instructor, or at a Part 141 school whose FAA-approved courses have their own, lower minimums. The commercial certificate needs 250 hours of flight time, or 190 after an approved commercial course at a Part 142 training center (14 CFR 61.129). Academies such as the two in step 7 package the certificates with the flight instructor certificate.
• MPL, the multi-crew pilot license: an ICAO license trained from the start for an airline’s two-pilot flight deck, with at least 240 hours of training in the airplane and the simulator, from 18. EASA and the UK issue it, Canada and Australia have it in their rules, and the FAA issues none.

Cadet programs put the airline’s selection before the training: the airline picks you and a partner school trains you, at the airline’s cost, at yours or something between. 82 of the 121 airlines on our jobs board name a cadet, academy, MPL or pathway route, and the cadet programs page sets out who pays on each.

Before a first type rating on a multi-pilot airplane, Part-FCL also asks for a multi-crew cooperation (MCC) course. The instrument rating and MCC courses articles explain both, and the commercial and airline transport pilot licenses article sets the EASA and FAA licenses side by side.

3. The theory exams, and English

ICAO Annex 1 sets the knowledge each license needs and leaves each state to examine it, which is why the exams look so different. A European or UK student sits 13 ATPL theory exams, from air law and meteorology to performance, navigation and human performance, needs 75% in each, and has 18 months from the end of the month of the first attempt to pass them all, in no more than six sittings and four attempts at any one paper (FCL.025); the passes then count for 36 months toward a commercial license or an instrument rating. An American sits one knowledge test per certificate: 60 questions for the private, 100 for the commercial and 125 for the ATP, which comes after the ATP-CTP course and stays valid for 60 months. Canada, India and Australia set papers of their own, named in the table above.

English. A pilot who uses the radio needs an ICAO language proficiency endorsement at Level 4 or above on its six-level scale. ICAO recommends a new evaluation at least every three years at Level 4 and every six at Level 5, and Level 6 needs none; EASA and the UK reassess Level 4 every four years and Level 5 every six (FCL.055), and the FAA marks its certificates “English Proficient” instead of giving a level. Airlines can ask for more than the minimum, as the UK and Australia guides show.

The ATPL exams guide walks through the European subjects, and the FAA ATP written test guide the American one.

4. From license to first job: the hours and the type rating

The license that commands an airliner is the airline transport pilot license (ATPL), the ATP certificate in the United States. ICAO Annex 1 sets it at 21 years and 1,500 hours of flight time in airplanes, including 250 in command (or at least 70 in command and the rest of the 250 in command under supervision, or 500 in command under supervision), 200 cross-country, 75 on instruments and 100 at night; EASA’s FCL.510.A, which the UK keeps, asks the same and adds that 500 of the 1,500 must be in multi-pilot operations. The systems part ways over when you need it:

• Europe and the UK hire before the hours. A CPL with a multi-engine instrument rating and every ATPL exam passed is a “frozen” ATPL, and the airlines hire on it, or on an MPL; it becomes a full ATPL at 1,500 hours, with a skill test in a multi-pilot airplane.
• The United States hires after them. Since 2013 every pilot of a US Part 121 airline, First Officers included, has had to hold an ATP certificate, and a Captain an unrestricted one with 1,000 hours of specified air carrier flying (14 CFR 121.436). The ATP takes 1,500 hours and 23 years (61.159 and 61.153), or, as the restricted ATP, 21 years, with 750 hours for military pilots and 1,000 or 1,250 for graduates of approved aviation degrees (61.160). So American pilots build the hours in paid flying before the airline hires them, usually as flight instructors: the USA guide and the restricted ATP explained go through it.
• Canada, India and Australia hire on the commercial license with an instrument rating, and each airline sets its own hours, from 200 to 2,000 hours at the airlines of those three countries on our board (step 5).

Of the 121 airlines on our jobs board, 26 publish a First or Second Officer entry at 500 hours or less, 4 of them with no hours minimum, and 1 of them in North America, where 16 of the 20 airlines with a published figure sit at 1,000 hours or more. The low-hour pilot jobs page lists them, and the hours requirements page every published minimum.

The type rating is the course that qualifies you on one aircraft type, the A320 or the 737, for example, and it usually comes with the job: 80 of the 121 airlines on our board publish a First or Second Officer entry for pilots who do not hold one, and provide, arrange or sell the rating. The non-type-rated First Officer jobs page sets out who pays for it and what the bond is.

5. The airlines in each country guide

The airlines on our jobs board in the countries our guides cover, as each record stood at its last check. The lowest published entry is the airline’s own figure for a First or Second Officer without a type rating, in its own measure of hours, with the date the record was checked; each guide sets out what its airlines ask, line by line.

Every airline we track, in every region, is on the jobs board, with its status at the last check.

6. Working abroad, and converting a license

The right to work comes first. A pilot license lets you fly; it does not let you work in another country. 64 of the 121 airlines on our jobs board ask for a nationality, a residence or a right to work you must already hold, or say they do not sponsor a visa, and 15 say they sponsor one for at least one pilot entry: the visa sponsorship page lists them.

Then the license. Under the Chicago Convention, a pilot flying internationally needs a license issued or rendered valid by the state where the aircraft is registered (Article 32). A pilot moving to another system therefore has the foreign license validated, for a limited time or purpose, or converts it into a local one, with credit for what it already covers. In the EU, Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/723 sets both routes, and converting for airline work usually means an EASA medical, the EASA theory exams and a skill test. The FAA issues a private pilot certificate on the basis of a foreign license under 14 CFR 61.75, with private privileges only; commercial and ATP privileges need the FAA’s own knowledge and practical tests. Each country guide sets out its own route, and FAA vs EASA covers both directions between the two largest systems.

7. Money and time

Each price is the school’s own, at the date shown. Check what it includes: exam and license fees, the medical, accommodation and the type rating are often extra, and ask what happens to the money you have paid if you, or the school, stop. Each country guide sets out its prices in full, with the funding where it exists, such as Australia’s VET Student Loans.

Country by country

• How to Become an Airline Pilot in the USA
• How to Become an Airline Pilot in Australia
• How to Become an Airline Pilot in Canada
• How to Become an Airline Pilot in India
• How to Become an Airline Pilot in the UK

Common questions

How long does it take to become an airline pilot? It depends on the system more than on you. A full-time integrated course takes about 16 to 18 months to a frozen ATPL at two UK schools (Acron Aviation Academy and Skyborne), and European and UK airlines hire on that license. In the United States, two academies take about nine to 15 months from zero to flight instructor (ATP Flight School and Acron Aviation Academy), and the airline then wants the ATP certificate, at 1,500 hours or the restricted ATP’s 750 to 1,250, so the hours come first. India’s government academy, IGRUA, puts its commercial license course at about three years.

How much does it cost to become an airline pilot? On named schools’ published prices: about USD 94,000 to 124,000 from zero to flight instructor in the USA in 2026 (Acron Aviation Academy, and ATP Flight School, whose price leaves out about USD 12,000 of examiners’ and test fees); about £95,000 to £115,000 for a UK integrated course (Skyborne, Acron Aviation Academy, 13 October 2026); about ₹55 lakh to ₹64 lakh for a commercial license course in India (IGRUA, FSTC Flying School, 14 October 2026); and about AUD 97,500 to 103,700 for an Australian commercial license diploma (four schools, 16 October 2026). What each price includes differs, so ask.

How many flight hours do you need to be an airline pilot? For the airline transport pilot license, 1,500: ICAO Annex 1 sets the figure, and EASA, the UK, the FAA, Canada, India and Australia all use it. When you need them differs. A US airline wants the ATP certificate before it hires you, at 1,500 hours, or 750 to 1,250 under the restricted ATP. European and UK airlines hire on a frozen ATPL, a commercial license with the instrument rating and the ATPL exams passed, and some take First Officers with a few hundred hours or with no minimum at all; the low-hour pilot jobs page lists them.

What license do you need to fly for an airline? To start as a First Officer outside the United States, a commercial pilot license with a multi-engine instrument rating, often with the airline transport theory passed (the frozen ATPL of Europe and the UK), or a multi-crew pilot license, and a Class 1 medical; the full airline transport pilot license follows at 1,500 hours, and you need it to command. In the United States every Part 121 airline pilot needs the ATP certificate, restricted or not, and a Captain an unrestricted one. The airline then trains you on its aircraft type, or asks for the type rating.

Can I train in one country and fly for an airline in another? Yes, but two things decide it. The license is valid in the system that issued it, so you validate or convert it, and converting for airline work usually means the new system’s medical, theory exams and a skill test. And the right to work, which a license does not give: many airlines ask for a nationality, a residence or a right to work you already hold, and only a few sponsor a visa. Train where you have the right to work, or where the airlines you want to fly for hire from.