TAP Air Portugal Pilot Requirements 2026: Hours, Licence and Hiring Process
TAP Air Portugal recruits First Officers only through periodic public competitions, open to internal and external candidates, and does not accept spontaneous applications. When its recruitment portal was read on 25 August 2026, no pilot vacancy was open, and a search on 12 October 2026 found no newer competition; the last one, ref. OP6NOV2025, which closed on 10 November 2025, had been filled. TAP publishes requirements per competition and withdraws them when it closes, so that campaign is the best guide to the next: an EASA CPL(A) with valid multi-engine and instrument ratings and a Class 1, kept valid until the contract is signed, at your own cost; a licence from another authority transferred to Portugal’s ANAC by the Operator Proficiency Check, also at your cost; and an A320-family type rating provided by TAP against a three-year bond from line release, with an indemnity of at least €20,500, reduced pro rata, if you resign without just cause before it ends. TAP’s own pages publish no hours minimum, no cadet route and no direct-entry Captain route.
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.
Is TAP Air Portugal hiring pilots now?
Not recruiting at the last check on 12 October 2026 — First Officer seat: Not recruiting; Captain seat: Not offered. Hiring paused: FO intake runs only via periodic competitions, not open applications
What we found at the last check: TAP had no pilot vacancy on 25 August 2026 and does not accept spontaneous First Officer applications: it recruits through periodic competitions, and the last one, in November 2025, has been filled. TAP says it will post an announcement when the next opens. A search on 12 October 2026 found no newer competition.
How we checked
No pilot vacancies are open on TAP's own recruitment portal: the Pilots category page states "There are currently no open positions matching this category or location" and "Spontaneous applications for First Officer are not accepted. We'll post an announcement when new opportunities for this feature arise" (checked 25 August 2026, same text in the Portuguese version). TAP's own category RSS feed, with a lastBuildDate of Tue, 25 Aug 2026, returns "No jobs currently available". The most recent pilot campaign, competition ref. OP6NOV2025 (announced 6 November 2025, applications closing 10 November 2025), now returns "Lamentamos, esta vaga ja foi preenchida" ("we are sorry, this vacancy has already been filled") on TAP's own job page, and its governing regulation limited it to Company Integration Courses starting up to 30 April 2026 - a validity window that has now expired. Re-checked in search results on 12 October 2026: no newer TAP pilot competition was found. Not re-read on the portal.
Requirements, as published
| Requirement | As published by the airline |
|---|---|
| Licence | EASA CPL(A) with valid multi-engine (ME) and instrument (IR) ratings. This much is confirmed in TAP's own competition regulation (ref. OP6NOV2025, clause 3.4), which requires the CPL(A), IR, ME and Class 1 medical to be valid on the application date and to remain valid until the employment contract is signed during LIFUS, at the candidate's own cost. Valid ATPL theory exams and MCC training are NOT in the regulation - the words 'ATPL' and 'MCC' do not appear anywhere in the PDF - and come only from aggregator reproductions of the campaign announcement; see the points we could not confirm. |
| Minimum hours | Not published on TAP's own site. The closed OP6NOV2025 campaign was reported to require 500 h total time; this figure comes from aggregator reproductions of the announcement, not from a TAP page I could reach. The earlier September 2024 campaign published no minimum hours figure at all. |
| Hours on type | No on-type minimum was published for the closed OP6NOV2025 campaign. In TAP's own regulation, hours on the A319/A320/A321 appear only as a CV scoring/ranking factor (clause 6.1), not as an eligibility threshold - but note that minimum eligibility criteria live in the announcement, not the regulation (clauses 1.3 and 5), and that announcement is offline, so absence of a threshold cannot be fully confirmed. |
| Type rating | Provided and bonded. TAP delivers a Company Integration Course (CIE) plus an A320-family type-rating / conversion course. Successful pilots must remain with TAP for a minimum of three years from line release; resignation without just cause before that triggers a training-cost indemnity of not less than EUR 20,500, reduced pro rata for time served. |
| Right to work | Not published as an explicit requirement. In practice two published conditions bear on it: licences issued by an authority other than Portugal's ANAC must be transferred to an ANAC licence by the date of the Operator Proficiency Check, entirely at the candidate's cost (TAP's own regulation, clause 3.5); and the campaign announcement required proficiency in Portuguese as well as English, written and spoken. No statement on visa sponsorship was found. |
| Medical | Valid EASA Class 1 medical certificate, required to be valid at application and maintained until the employment contract is signed. TAP runs its own medical assessment through UCS (Unidade de Cuidados de Saude) as an eliminatory stage. |
| English | ICAO/aeronautical English Level 4 or higher endorsed on the licence. TAP's own regulation awards ranking bonus points for Level 5 (1 pt) and Level 6 (2 pts), which corroborates Level 4 as the baseline; the explicit Level 4 minimum itself comes from the campaign announcement text as reproduced by aggregators. |
| Age | Not published. |
| Also | TAP does not maintain a standing published set of pilot entry requirements. Its First Officer page is marketing copy only, with no criteria at all. Requirements are published per competition, in an announcement annexed to a numbered regulation, and both are withdrawn when the competition closes - TAP's own regulation states at clause 1.3 and clause 5 that the minimum requirements live in the announcement, not the regulation. Everything above therefore describes the CLOSED November 2025 competition (ref. OP6NOV2025) and should be treated as the best available guide to what the next campaign will look like, not as currently binding criteria. The CPL(A)/IR/ME and Class 1 medical validity conditions, the type-rating bonding, the ANAC-transfer obligation, the competition validity window and the selection-process items are confirmed from TAP's own regulation PDF; the hours figure, education, language, English Level 4, ATPL theory, MCC and UPRT items come from the announcement as reproduced by third-party job sites, because TAP's own announcement page has been taken down and is not in the Wayback Machine. |
What TAP’s regulation confirms, and what only job sites reported
TAP’s announcement page for the November 2025 competition has been taken down and is not archived, so its requirements survive in two forms: TAP’s own regulation for the competition, and reproductions of the announcement on job sites. They do not carry the same weight.
| Requirement | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| EASA CPL(A) with ME and IR, and a Class 1, valid from application to contract signature, at your own cost | TAP’s regulation, clause 3.4 |
| A licence from another authority transferred to ANAC by the Operator Proficiency Check, at your own cost | TAP’s regulation, clause 3.5 |
| Every requirement met on the closing date, with no later updates to the file | TAP’s regulation, clause 3.3 |
| A320-family rating provided; three years’ service from line release, or an indemnity of at least €20,500, reduced pro rata | TAP’s regulation |
| A 12-month bar after a “não apto” in the psychological assessment, and two years after elimination in type-rating or conversion training | TAP’s regulation, clauses 7.9 and 10.11 |
| Up to 2% of vacancies reserved for candidates with a disability, chronic illness or oncological disease | TAP’s careers site |
| 500 h total time | Job-site reproductions only; the September 2024 competition published no hours figure |
| ATPL theory and MCC | Job-site reproductions only; neither term appears in TAP’s regulation |
| ICAO English Level 4; 12th-grade education; Portuguese and English, written and spoken; Advanced UPRT | Job-site reproductions of the announcement |
| Disqualification after more than two failed TAP competitions | Aggregator summaries; not found in the regulation |
So a pilot should not assume that ATPL theory or an MCC certificate is either required or enough until TAP publishes the next announcement. The regulation does rank English, one point for Level 5 and two for Level 6, which supports Level 4 as the floor without proving it.
Entry routes
- Direct entry First Officer ("Oficial Piloto") - the only pilot route TAP publishes on its own careers site; recruited via periodic public competitions ("concursos") open to both internal and external candidates. Currently closed.
- Type-rated FO - not a separate route. A319/A320/A321 experience was not listed as a minimum requirement in the closed OP6NOV2025 campaign, and in TAP's regulation it functions as a CV-ranking score (>1,500 h on type = 12 pts; >800 h on type in the last 24 months = 10 pts; >400 h = 5 pts). Confirmed as a scoring rule (clause 6.1); its absence as an eligibility bar rests on the offline announcement, so treat it as likely, not certain.
- Cadet / ab-initio - no TAP-run cadet or ab-initio programme is published on TAP's own site. A graduate-placement agreement with FTEJerez exists but was announced in March 2019 and is not confirmed as currently active.
- Direct entry Captain - not published. TAP's careers site lists only "Oficial Piloto" / First Officer; command appears to be filled internally.
Selection process
- Online application through recrutamento.tap.pt with all mandatory documentation by the published closing date; eligibility is frozen at that date.
- Pre-selection: documentary and eligibility screening by the Talent Attraction team. Rejected candidates are told which requirement was missing and have a short window to appeal.
- Phase 1 - CV scoring and ranking, on the application file only: points for A319/A320/A321 experience and recency, total flight hours weighted by aircraft complexity (high-performance types x0.003, other types x0.001), completed degrees (4 pts if they include maths or physics, 2 pts otherwise), and aeronautical English Level 5 or 6. A provisional ranked list is published and can be appealed within 2 working days.
- Phase 2 - three sequential eliminatory assessments, each graded only APTO / NAO APTO: (a) written Aeronautical Assessment run by Flight Operations / Training, pass mark 75%; (b) Psychological Assessment run by HR; (c) Medical Assessment run by UCS. External or previous equivalent test results are not accepted.
- Phase 3 - full-flight simulator check including a theoretical evaluation, followed by a final interview with the Selection Jury (Flight Operations Director, Training Director, Chief Pilot, HR Director), which makes the final approve/reject decision.
- Post-selection, all eliminatory: Company Integration Course (CIE), then A320-family type-rating / conversion training, then LIFUS and a Line Check. The employment contract is signed during the LIFUS phase; final seniority is set by a weighted score across questionnaire, simulator, evaluation, LIFUS and line check.
How TAP ranks the files
Phase 1 scores your application file alone, before anyone meets you, and the provisional ranking can be appealed within two working days. The regulation publishes the scale:
| Item | Points, as published |
|---|---|
| A319, A320 or A321 experience | 12 points above 1,500 h on type; 10 points above 800 h on type in the last 24 months; 5 points above 400 h |
| Total flight hours | Weighted by aircraft complexity: 0.003 per hour on high-performance types, 0.001 on other types |
| Degree | 4 points if it includes mathematics or physics, 2 points otherwise |
| Aeronautical English | 1 point for Level 5, 2 points for Level 6 |
In the regulation, hours on the A320 family appear as a ranking score, not as an entry requirement: nothing in it excludes a pilot without them, but one with recent time on type starts ahead. Final seniority is set later, by a weighted score across the questionnaire, the simulator, the evaluation, line training and the line check, so the ranking that gets you in is not the one that places you on the list.
Bases and fleet
Bases: Lisbon (LIS) - primary hub and main pilot base · Porto (OPO) - secondary hub; use as a pilot base not confirmed on TAP's own site
Fleet: Airbus A320-200neo · Airbus A321-200neo · Airbus A321-200LR · Airbus A330-900neo · Airbus A319-100 · Airbus A320-200 · Airbus A321-200 · Airbus A330-200 · Embraer 190 (TAP Express, operated by Portugalia) · Embraer 195 (TAP Express, operated by Portugalia)
How to prepare
Entry is into the A320 family, since the integration course is followed by an A320-family type rating or conversion, so the A320 bank is the technical preparation, and it is needed early: the first of Phase 2’s three eliminatory assessments is a written Aeronautical Assessment with a 75% pass mark, set by Flight Operations and Training, and it comes before the simulator. Use the ATPL theory banks alongside it, because TAP publishes no syllabus. Phase 3 is a full-flight simulator check with a theoretical evaluation, then a final interview with a jury of the Flight Operations Director, the Training Director, the Chief Pilot and the HR Director. Eligibility is frozen on the closing date, so have your licence, medical and logbook proofs ready before the next competition opens.
Our TAP Air Portugal pilot interview guide works through eleven technical questions on the fleet TAP flies, the simulator check and the jury interview. For the A320 systems behind the written assessment, see the top 50 A320 interview questions and the Library on A320 flight control laws and protections. Check TAP’s entry on the jobs board for the latest status.
What we could not confirm
- The 500 h total time minimum for the OP6NOV2025 campaign. Aggregator-sourced only (empregoestagios.com, 7 November 2025); TAP's own announcement page is offline and not archived, and the regulation PDF does not contain the figure. The September 2024 campaign published no hours minimum, so this is not a stable TAP standard.
- The 12th-grade education minimum, the Portuguese-language requirement, the ICAO English Level 4 minimum and the Advanced UPRT requirement - all taken from aggregator reproductions of the campaign announcement rather than a live TAP page.
- The requirement for valid ATPL theory exams and for MCC training. Aggregator-sourced only. Verified absent from TAP's regulation PDF: the strings 'ATPL', 'MCC' and 'Multi Crew' do not occur anywhere in it, and clause 3.4 lists only CPL(A), IR, ME and the Class 1 medical. A pilot should not assume ATPL theory credit or an MCC certificate is either required or sufficient until TAP publishes the next announcement.
- The claim that more than two prior failures in TAP pilot competitions is disqualifying - aggregator-sourced, not found in TAP's regulation.
- Any age limit. Nothing found either way; reported as 'not published' rather than 'none'.
- Visa sponsorship or right-to-work policy for non-EU candidates. TAP publishes nothing; the ANAC licence-transfer and Portuguese-language conditions are the only related published items.
- Whether the FTEJerez graduate-placement agreement (announced March 2019) is still active. No TAP page mentions it and no cadet route appears on TAP's careers site.
- Porto (OPO) as a pilot base. Widely reported by third-party sources but not confirmed on TAP's own recruitment or corporate pages. Lisbon as the main base is not in doubt.
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 TAP Air Portugal hiring pilots? Not at the last check, on 12 October 2026, when a search found no newer competition. On 25 August 2026 TAP’s recruitment portal showed no open pilot positions and said that spontaneous First Officer applications are not accepted, and the last competition, ref. OP6NOV2025, had been filled. TAP says it will post an announcement when new opportunities arise.
How many hours do you need to fly for TAP? TAP’s own pages publish no hours minimum. Job sites reproducing the November 2025 announcement reported 500 hours total, a figure TAP’s regulation does not contain and the September 2024 competition did not ask for. In the regulation, hours on the A319, A320 and A321 count as ranking points.
Does TAP provide the type rating? Yes, against a bond. TAP provides a Company Integration Course and an A320-family type rating or conversion, and the pilot must stay for at least three years from line release; resigning without just cause before then triggers a training-cost indemnity of at least €20,500, reduced pro rata for the time served.
Can I apply to TAP with a licence from outside Portugal? Yes, but a licence issued by an authority other than Portugal’s ANAC must be transferred to an ANAC licence by the date of the Operator Proficiency Check, entirely at your cost. TAP publishes no right-to-work or visa statement, and the last announcement, as reproduced by job sites, also asked for Portuguese as well as English.
Does TAP have a cadet programme? TAP publishes none: the only pilot route on its careers site is First Officer, recruited by competition. A graduate-placement agreement with FTEJerez was announced in March 2019, but it is not confirmed as active and no TAP page mentions it.
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