Five things you need to know about ‘unfreezing’ your Airline Transport Pilot Licence

How do you ‘unfreeze’ your licence and why do you need to?
Aileron explains…

Cadet pilots typically graduate from flight training with ATPL Theoretical Knowledge exam passes, a Commercial Pilot Licence with Multi Engine Instrument Rating (CPL/MEIR) and a Multi-Crew Co-operation and Jet Orientation Certificate (MCC/JOC).

Combined, this is known as a ‘frozen’ Airline Transport Pilot Licence (fATPL). 

1. You can still get a job as an Airline Pilot if your EASA ATPL is ‘frozen’.

Thanks to EASA regulations, many European airlines accept applications for Second and First Officer positions from flight training graduates, depending on your training record, the industry recruitment climate and airline flight operations. 

​2. An EASA ATPL ‘unfreezes’ once you have successfully flown and logged 1500 hours. 

​This means you will be issued with a full Airline Transport Pilot Licence by the authorities. This in turn opens up career progression opportunities and options for a professional Pilot.

3. The regulator must see paper evidence of your hours.

These hours must be recorded by you in your Professional Pilot Log Book, correctly logged and signed.

4.  Not all ATPLs are unfrozen equal.

EASA accepts a combination of minimum hours required, which can vary from Pilot to Pilot. Your 1500 hours must include:
​

• 500 hours in multi-pilot operations on aircraft.
• 500 hours as Pilot In Command (PIC) under supervision OR 250 hours as PIC OR 250 hours as PIC under supervision, including at least 70 hours as PIC
• 200 hours of cross-country flight time, of which at least 100 hours should be as PIC OR as PIC under supervision
• 75 hours of instrument time, of which not more than 30 hours can be instrument ground time
• 100 hours of night flying as PIC or co-pilot.

5. The same applies for Multi-Crew Pilot Licence (MPL) holders

​Those who have trained on a Multi-Crew Pilot Licence course (often linked to an Airline, such as easyJet, Qatar or Virgin Atlantic) are also able to apply to be issued with a full ATPL once they have reached 1500 hours, in an identical way to fATPL holder.


So you want to unfreeze your ATPL, but have you logged all your hours correctly? 

Find our downloadable guide on Unfreezing your ATPL in our "log book milestones" blog post!

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