Who needs the ELP endorsement in India
If the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issues or renews your licence and you speak on the radio in English, you need an English Language Proficiency (ELP) level of ICAO Operational Level 4 or higher. That covers CPL and ATPL holders, CPL students before the licence is issued, and air traffic controllers. The requirement comes from ICAO Annex 1 (icao.int could not be fetched this week), which asks pilots and controllers to demonstrate the ability to speak and understand the language used for radiotelephony. DGCA does not run the test. It approves organisations to train and test, and publishes them in a list behind its portal menu item "ELP Training and Testing Service Provider": on 21 October 2026 that list, dated 1 December 2024, named 11 organisations, all set out below. The test is speaking and listening only, rated on six criteria (pronunciation, structure, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, interactions), and your overall level is the lowest of the six. That last rule is the one most candidates learn too late: a confident speaker rated 3 in comprehension holds a Level 3, whatever the other five say.
- Who: DGCA licence holders and candidates who use English on the radio: CPL, ATPL, ATC.
- Minimum: Level 4 in all six criteria, per ICAO Annex 1 (icao.int could not be fetched this week).
- Approved organisations: 11 on the DGCA list "As on 01st Dec 2024", testing in 12 towns and cities.
- Candidate fee: not published by DGCA; set by the provider. DGCA's user-fees document prices only the organisation's approval.
- Validity: Level 4 at least every 3 years, Level 5 at least every 6, Level 6 not re-evaluated, per ICAO Annex 1; EUROCONTROL's ELPAC FAQ gives the same figures.
- Dates: none published. There is no national date sheet; each provider sets its own sessions.
Three groups, three different moments
| Who | When the ELP matters | What goes wrong (TalkDrill's view) |
|---|---|---|
| CPL student | Before the licence is issued. Your flying school may arrange the test for a batch; ask when. | Treating it as a formality and sitting it cold. A Level 3 delays the licence and costs a second fee. |
| Airline or charter pilot renewing | Before the validity date on the licence. Level 4 holders renew most often, every 3 years. | Booking in the expiry month with no time left for a re-test if the result is a 3. |
| Controller | At licensing and at each re-evaluation; the employer may arrange testing. | Assuming phraseology fluency equals Level 4. The test asks for plain English in non-routine situations. |
The DGCA-approved AELP organisations, by name and city
On the DGCA portal, go to Personnel, then Training, then Pilot, and open "ELP Training and Testing Service Provider" (with the Hindi toggle on, "ईएलपी प्रशिक्षण एवं परीक्षण सेवा प्रदाता"). It opens a four-page PDF from DGCA's public file store titled "DGCA approved AELP Training & testing organizations along with details of DGCA approved Interlocutor/Rater recurrent trainer", stamped "As on 01st Dec 2024". The PDF does not spell out AELP; read it as aviation English language proficiency, the scheme DGCA's user-fees document calls "Aviation English Language Training Organisation/Testing Service Provider". That is the version the portal served when we read it on 21 October 2026. It names the 11 organisations below, the places each one trains and tests, and a contact person for each; we reproduce the organisations and places and leave the personal contacts on DGCA's PDF.
| # | Organisation (as on the DGCA list) | Training at | Testing at |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | InterGlobe Aviation (IndiGo) | Gurugram | Gurugram; testing only at Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru |
| 2 | Flytech Aviation Pvt. Ltd. | Hyderabad (opposite Nadirgul airfield) | Hyderabad |
| 3 | Trans Aviacons Pvt. Ltd. | Hyderabad | Hyderabad |
| 4 | SpiceJet Limited | Gurugram | Gurugram |
| 5 | Air India Ltd. | Hyderabad (Central Training Establishment) | Hyderabad, Mumbai, New Delhi |
| 6 | Madhya Pradesh Flying Club Ltd. | Indore, Bhopal | Indore, Bhopal |
| 7 | Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi (IGRUA) | Fursatganj airfield, Amethi | Fursatganj airfield, Amethi |
| 8 | Academy of Carver Aviation Pvt. Ltd. | Baramati | Baramati; testing also in Mumbai |
| 9 | Chimes Aviation Pvt. Ltd. | Dhana airstrip, Sagar (Madhya Pradesh) | Dhana |
| 10 | Redbird Flight Training Academy Pvt. Ltd. | Dwarka, New Delhi | Dwarka, New Delhi |
| 11 | Jet Serve Aviation Pvt. Ltd. | Dwarka, New Delhi | Dwarka, New Delhi |
The same list by region
| Where you are | Organisations testing there (DGCA list, as on 1 Dec 2024) |
|---|---|
| Delhi region | IndiGo and SpiceJet (Gurugram), Air India, Redbird and Jet Serve (New Delhi) |
| Hyderabad | IndiGo, Air India, Flytech Aviation, Trans Aviacons |
| Mumbai | IndiGo, Air India, Academy of Carver Aviation |
| Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata | IndiGo (testing only) |
| Madhya Pradesh | Madhya Pradesh Flying Club (Indore, Bhopal), Chimes Aviation (Dhana) |
| Uttar Pradesh | IGRUA (Fursatganj, Amethi) |
| Maharashtra outside Mumbai | Academy of Carver Aviation (Baramati) |
Four things the list does not tell you, so ask before you book.
- Whether an airline tests outsiders. Three of the 11 are airlines (IndiGo, SpiceJet, Air India) and several are flying schools. The list gives no rule on who each one accepts, so a candidate who is not their pilot or cadet should ask first.
- Which test each one uses. The list names organisations, not tests. Trans Aviacons is also TEA Centre No. 235 on Mayflower College's TEA locations page, and one of the six TEA centres that page says the UK CAA accepts; for the others, ask.
- Whether it is still current. The stamp is 1 December 2024, almost two years before our read. DGCA can add or withdraw approvals, so open the menu item again the week you pay.
- The fee. Not on the list; see the next section.
How to check a provider in two minutes
Open the DGCA portal menu item, check the "As on" date on the PDF it opens, and find the exact legal name on your provider's quote. If the name is missing or different, ask the provider for its DGCA approval letter and confirm it with the eGCA Support Cell on 1800-11-3422 (the number the portal publishes). Save the PDF with your booking email; it is your evidence if the endorsement is questioned later.
What DGCA publishes about fees, and what it does not
DGCA publishes no candidate fee for the ELP test. We read the "User Fees" document linked from the portal header (a 33-page proforma last modified in October 2021). It has exactly two rows on English language proficiency, and both are paid by organisations to DGCA, not by you: approval of an "Aviation English Language Training Organisation/Testing Service Provider" under Rule 113C, priced by headcount band, and renewal or extension of that approval. The rows say they were last revised in 2017. Nothing in the document prices a candidate's test or re-test.
| DGCA user charge (Rule 113C, last revised 2017) | "Organisation having 50 employees" | More than 50 and up to 200 | More than 200 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Approval of an Aviation English Language Training Organisation/Testing Service Provider | ₹2,00,000 | ₹4,00,000 | ₹8,00,000 |
| Renewal or extension of scope of that approval | ₹1,00,000 | ₹2,00,000 | ₹4,00,000 |
Why this matters to a candidate: it confirms that the price you pay is the provider's own, which is why it varies, and why a figure on a blog cannot be checked against DGCA. Secondary sites print a per-attempt range in rupees; we could not trace it to an official page and do not repeat it. Ask the provider in writing for the test fee with GST, the re-test fee, the no-show rule and the days to the certificate. Our fees, booking and results page has the eight questions to send.
The route from provider to licence
eGCA is the DGCA's online licensing system. The portal home page offers an eGCA Login through the user icon in the top navigation, and publishes the eGCA Support Cell number, 1800-11-3422, and a general DGCA line, 91-11-24622495 (both read on 21 October 2026). We have not walked through the logged-in eGCA screens, so the route below is what the public portal and the provider pages expose; where a step depends on a screen we have not seen, we say so.
- Pick an organisation from the DGCA list. Use the table above, then confirm on the portal's current PDF. A certificate from an organisation that is not listed may not be accepted.
- Book with the organisation directly. DGCA does not run the test and publishes no date sheet; each provider sets its own sessions. Ask which test they deliver, the fee, the result timeline and how the result reaches DGCA.
- Sit the test. Carry the identity document you registered with. The format depends on the test the provider uses; the TEA format is set out below.
- Receive the rating. A score of 1 to 6 on each of the six criteria and an overall level equal to the lowest. Level 4 or above meets the ICAO minimum; Level 3 does not.
- Get it onto your licence through eGCA. We have not seen which eGCA application carries the ELP result for a first CPL issue versus a renewal, so ask your flying school or the eGCA Support Cell before you apply.
- Read the licence. The ELP level and its validity date on your licence are the record that binds you. Diary the re-test for the month before.
One caution on the regulation itself. The user-fees document cites Rule 113C for the approval of ELP organisations, but the DGCA Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) that sets out the candidate side of the scheme was not on a page we could fetch this week, so we quote no CAR number or clause. If you need the regulation text for an appeal or an employer, take it from the DGCA portal's regulations section, not from a coaching site.
Validity and renewal by level
The re-evaluation intervals are ICAO Annex 1 provisions; icao.int could not be fetched this week, so the table gives them per ICAO Annex 1 as widely published. EUROCONTROL's ELPAC FAQ (read 21 October 2026) states the same figures for both controllers and flight crew: "level 4 valid 3 years, level 5 valid 6 years, level 6 not subject to re-assessment", adding that "the decision about validity is at the discretion of the competent authority". In India that authority is the DGCA, and we could not read a DGCA page that states the intervals, so the date on your licence is the one that counts.
| Level | ICAO name | Re-evaluation (per ICAO Annex 1; same in the ELPAC FAQ) | Meets the minimum? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Expert | Not re-evaluated | Yes |
| 5 | Extended | At least every 6 years | Yes |
| 4 | Operational | At least every 3 years | Yes, the minimum |
| 3 | Pre-operational | Not applicable | No |
| 1 to 2 | Pre-elementary, Elementary | Not applicable | No |
Three practical points. One: European licences differ. The ELPAC FAQ says that in EASA member states "level 6 validity for air traffic controllers is capped at 9 years and level 4 validity for flight crew is extended to 4 years", and some provider pages print other figures again. None of that changes a DGCA endorsement; our levels and validity page sets the sourced tables side by side. Two: the arithmetic favours Level 5. On a 3-year interval, a 30-year career at Level 4 means about ten re-tests; at Level 5 on a 6-year interval it is about five, and Level 6 ends them. Three: renewal is a fresh test, not a form. TEA's Notes for Candidates say the examiners "cannot consider any aspect of previous experience or previous test scores".
What happens at the test
The DGCA list does not say which test each organisation delivers, so here is the format we can document end to end from official pages: TEA, which has a centre on the DGCA list (Trans Aviacons, Hyderabad). Per the TEA page on aviation-english.com and the TEA Notes for Candidates (version 5.0), both read on 21 October 2026, TEA is "a 25 - 30 minute test that consists of 3 parts", "face-to-face" with "1 examiner", and approved by the UK CAA "and many other national authorities".
| Part | Time (TEA page) | What you do | Criterion most exposed (TalkDrill's view) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Interview | 7 to 8 minutes | Questions about your role in aviation, then a specific aviation topic, with follow-ups. | Fluency and structure: long answers in past, present and future forms. |
| 2. Interactive comprehension (2A, 2B, 2C) | 8 to 12 minutes | 2A: six recordings of non-routine situations; report the message and say whether a pilot or controller spoke. 2B: four longer recordings; take notes and report every detail. 2C: three short recordings; 20 seconds to ask questions, then give advice. | Comprehension and interactions. Recordings play once unless you ask for a repeat, never a third time, and "regular repetition ... may affect your Comprehension score". |
| 3. Picture description and discussion | 10 minutes | Describe the first of two connected pictures (30 seconds), answer questions on the second, then on both, then discuss wider aviation topics: opinions, speculation, justification. | Vocabulary and pronunciation under pressure; the discussion rewards paraphrase. |
Test-day rules from the same Notes: arrive at least thirty minutes early so the administrator can check your details and photograph you (the photo goes on the certificate); bring the passport or national identity card you registered with or you will not be tested; leave anything that can record outside the room; the test is recorded. The examiner gives no indication of your result, the result is not available on the day, and the certificate is posted to your centre within 10 working days of the test date. If your provider uses ELPAC instead, the shape is different: per the ELPAC FAQ, Paper 1 is a 45-item computer-marked listening test of about 38 minutes, and Paper 2 is live speaking of roughly 20 to 25 minutes rated by two assessors. Our tests compared page sets the formats side by side.
A worked Part 1 exchange, written by TalkDrill
The exchange below is written by TalkDrill as a teaching example in the style of a TEA Part 1 interview. It is not a transcript of a real candidate. The question is one of the example questions in Mayflower College's TEA Guide for Stakeholders, which also lists "Could you tell me about your job?". The two answers show what moves a response from a Level 3 risk to a safe Level 4.
Question: If you cannot understand an ATC message, what would you do and what would you say?
Level 3 risk (TalkDrill example): "I will say say again. Then controller repeat. If again not understand, I ask again. It is normal procedure." Short, correct in content, but the structure breaks on every clause ("not understand", "controller repeat") and there is nothing beyond the first idea. The examiner has little language to rate.
Safe Level 4 (TalkDrill example): "First I would ask the controller to say again, and if the problem was speed I would ask them to speak slower. If I still couldn't get it, I'd read back the part I did understand and ask them to confirm the rest, for example the altitude. That way the controller knows exactly which part was lost. In a busy terminal area I'd keep it short, because other aircraft are waiting on the frequency." Conditional and past forms are mostly accurate, the answer gives a sequence, a reason and an example, and the pauses are for content, not grammar.
Notice what the second answer does not do: it does not recite phraseology for its own sake. The stakeholder guide is explicit: "The purpose of TEA is to elicit a sample of plain English which can be assessed using the ICAO descriptors. The purpose is not to test operational competence." Candidates drilled hard on phraseology often answer every question with a procedure, then run out of language when the examiner asks "why?". The fix is to practise the "why" and "what if" follow-ups until a three-sentence answer comes without effort. Our non-routine situations page has 25 scenarios built for that switch from phraseology to plain English.
A practice route for Indian candidates
Most Indian candidates speak Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil or Punjabi at home and English at the flying school, so the risks are specific: retroflex t and d that blur "thirty" and "thirteen", v and w swapped in "Victor" and "Whiskey", vowel length that turns "leave" into "live", and the continuous form for states ("I am having 180 hours"). None of these alone costs Level 4; a cluster of them in the comprehension and interaction tasks can. Here is a route that fits around a ground-school or line-flying week.
- Week 1, know the format. Use the official sample material: TEA's Notes point candidates to www.tea-test.com (it now opens the TEA page), and ELPAC offers free pilot and ATC sample tests on elpactest.eu. Read our rating scale page and score yourself honestly on the six criteria.
- Weeks 1 to 4, one listening re-tell a day. Play a non-routine message once, report it in your own words, and say who was speaking. Our practice bank has 40 items with model answers: 10 interview questions, 8 picture prompts, 16 non-routine role-plays (9 pilot, 7 controller) and 6 listening and read-back drills.
- Twice a week, a spoken role-play. Use AI role-play as the controller or the other pilot in a diversion, a medical case or a fuel problem, and keep talking past the phraseology into plain English.
- Pronunciation drills by first language. Ten minutes of read-aloud practice on numbers, call signs and the sounds flagged for your language on our mistakes by first language page.
- Week before the test, two timed mocks. 25 to 30 minutes each, recorded, rated on the six criteria, weakest criterion first. The 30-day roadmap lays the month out day by day.
Then book with time to spare. A Level 3 means a second fee and a second wait for the certificate, so leave room for a re-test before the validity date on your licence. Confirm the organisation on the DGCA list, confirm the fee in writing, and read your licence expiry before you do anything else. The official pages behind this page are collected, with their verification status, on our official resources page.