What these exams are
A professional aeroplane course includes theoretical knowledge at airline transport level, even when the licence you hold at the end of training is a CPL with the exams “in the bank”. Passing the exams does not issue an ATPL. The ATPL itself waits for the experience requirements. People call the combination of a CPL, an instrument rating, and these exams a frozen ATPL. That is jargon, not the name of a licence.
The exams are sat under the national authority that oversees your training, often at a contracted exam centre. An approved training organisation runs the ground school or the distance-learning course that leads to them. A question bank is a study tool. It is not the syllabus.
The subject groups
For aeroplanes, the current EASA ATPL(A) syllabus has the 13 examined subjects below. Helicopter syllabi use different performance and principles-of-flight subjects, and they are not listed here.
- 010 Air law.
- 021 Aircraft general knowledge: airframe, systems, and power plant.
- 022 Aircraft general knowledge: instrumentation.
- 031 Mass and balance.
- 032 Performance, aeroplanes.
- 033 Flight planning and monitoring.
- 040 Human performance and limitations.
- 050 Meteorology.
- 061 General navigation.
- 062 Radio navigation.
- 070 Operational procedures.
- 081 Principles of flight, aeroplanes.
- 090 Communications.
How a sitting works
You do not have to sit every paper on the same day. Schools schedule blocks. Under FCL.025 you must sit the whole set with one state’s authority and pass all papers within 18 months, counted from the end of the month of your first attempt. You get no more than four attempts at any one paper and no more than six sittings. Break any of those limits and you start the whole set again.
The questions are multiple choice. The pass mark is 75% on each paper, with no negative marking. Once you have passed, the exams are valid for 36 months for the issue of a CPL or instrument rating. For the ATPL itself they stay valid for 7 years from the last validity date of an instrument rating on your licence. Distance learning still requires an approved course, including classroom or virtual classroom time, before you can sit. A self-bought question bank on its own is not that course.
Private-pilot theory is a different set
A PPL or LAPL has its own theoretical exams: nine subjects, namely air law, human performance, meteorology, communications, navigation, principles of flight, operational procedures, flight performance and planning, and aircraft general knowledge. The names overlap with the list above, but the depth and question style do not. The pass mark is also 75%, and a pass is valid for 24 months for the licence issue. Passing private-pilot exams does not give you credit for the airline transport set, although ATPL or CPL exam passes do cover the PPL theory.
Sources
Checked on 17 October 2026. Rules are amended, so read the current text before you rely on a figure.
- EASA, Easy Access Rules for Aircrew (Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011), Part-FCL: https://www.easa.europa.eu/en/document-library/easy-access-rules/online-publications/easy-access-rules-aircrew-regulation-eu-no
- EASA, Area 100 Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes (ED Decision 2018/001/R): https://www.easa.europa.eu/en/newsroom-and-events/events/workshop-area-100-knowledge-skills-attitudes-theoretical-knowledge
- UK CAA, Private pilot licence for aeroplanes: https://www.caa.co.uk/general-aviation/pilot-licences/aeroplanes/private-pilot-licence-for-aeroplanes/