What are some of the main differences between UK and EASA licenses, which one should I choose and why, what are the benefits of having both licenses, these are just some of the questions I was wondering before I started at my flying school. If this sounds like you then keep reading to learn all the important differences and things to note before making your decision.

So lets get into it...

The main and biggest difference between a UK CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) and an EASA (European Union Aviation Saftey Agency) license are where they are valid and who regulates them. This has become an 'issue' only after BREXIT because before this time the UK was part of the EU so UK pilots held EASA licenses which where issued by the UK CAA. However since this time the UK now requires a separate license.

Where this difference is most noticable is with what aircrafts you can fly once qualified. A UK CAA license will cover all G-reg aircrafts, which includes the UK based airlines such as British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, EasyJet UK, Wizz Air UK, Ryanair UK, Jet 2 UK, Norse Atlantic UK and Loganair. Just to make it clear the reason I have written 'UK' after some of these companies is because you will find they are registered in different countries as well, so for example Ryanair has its main base in Ireland which is not part of the UK hence you would need an EASA license to work for Ryanair Ireland.

An EASA license covers any airline registered within Europe which includes; Vueling, EuroWings, easyjet Europe, Ryanair EU, KLM, Air France, Iberia, SAS, Swiss, Air Baltic and TAP Air Portugal, to name a few. As you can see a few airlines cross over both UK and EASA licenses such as easyjet and Ryanair, if you are choosing to just have a UK license you can only apply for easyjet UK not the European easyjet. However this is made very clear when applying so you won't be able to mess this up:)

Another difference between these licenses are the medicals you will need. Please click here to go to my post all about the class 1 medical, however the process is relatively the same but the governing body will be different for UK CAA and EASA. If you are choosing to get both an EASA and UK license depending on where you get your medical done they can sometimes combine them into one examination but you will get two licenses. It does of course cost extra (as most things in this career do). You will only need an EASA class 1 medical if you are choosing to also gain an EASA ATPL license. In my circumstance I only got a UK CAA class 1 medical, however because for part of my training I am in Spain I did need to get an EASA class 2 medical. This was sorted out for me via my training school but you can do this beforehand if you know you will need it. The reason it is only a class 2 is because it satisfies the legal requirements for non-commercial flying in Spanish airspace, as I am only at the start of my flying training.

A major difference, and to be honest a deal breaker is with the ground school requirements. If you choose to have both UK and EASA you will need to sit 13 UK CAA exams as well as 13 EASA exams, in total 26 exams! Are the exams the same? For the most part, yes. During ground school we all learnt the exact same information, the main difference is how the exams are written. A UK CAA exam will be multiple choice and type in questions, whereas the EASA exam is all multiple choice. Does this make EASA exams easier to pass? I'll let you decide since I did not take EASA exams:). One of the things I was not aware of until I had friends doing both licenses was something obvious that just didn't cross my mind; if you fail one exam in EASA but pass the UK exam you will have to then 'carry' that subject and resit the EASA version of that exam at a later date. Lets take an example of the groundschool subject Principals of Flight (POF) if you sit the UK POF exam and get 80% you pass (yay), if you then sit the EASA POF and get 72% you fail (sad face). This then means you will need to keep revising POF until you sit the EASA exam again and pass at 75% (thats the minimum pass mark for all exams).

For me the reason I chose to only have a UK license was because 1. its cheaper (currently Leading Edge are charging £132,000 for a dual license UK and EASA), 2. there are less exams (I could barely get through 13, there was no way I was going to do another 13 on top of that), 3. The medical was cheaper, I mentioned this in my other post about the class 1 medical but it had already cost me so much just for a UK medical so that was enough for me. 4. Someone made a really good point to me that was, that without the right to live and work in the EU its difficult to get a job without needing work visas and it just becomes a lot more complicated. I found it hard enough just trying to get into a flying school and finding out all the differences and I really didn't want this to be a whole other issue.

In my friend group a lot of people did decide to have a dual UK and EASA license because it does open up job flexibility, however there are definitely a mix of students doing both licenses and just the UK license. I am really happy with the decision I made because especially in ground school I wouldn't have been able to survive double the exams. As well as that I didn't see the point getting a dual license because I can't live in the EU without a visa so its just more convenient for me to work from the UK, I also would like to work for British Airways which are UK based and maybe eventually move back to Virgin. Who knows!