ICAO English Test Fees, Booking and Results: DGCA ELP in India, TEA and ELPAC

The short answer: no national fee, no national dates

Nobody can tell you "the ICAO English test fee", because ICAO does not run a test and does not set a price. Each national authority approves test providers, and each provider sets its own fee, booking route and result timeline. On 21 October 2026 we read the official pages of three routes: the DGCA ELP scheme in India (11 approved organisations), TEA from Mayflower College (centres in India, the UAE, Turkey, Kuwait and 16 other countries and territories) and ELPAC from EUROCONTROL (run through employers and schools). None of the three publishes a candidate fee on a page we could fetch. Two publish a result timeline, both publish an appeal route, and all three publish how you get in. The table below is the whole picture; every cell names its source, and "not published" means exactly that. Each provider sets its own sessions; there are no national dates to put in a calendar.

India: the DGCA ELP fee, booking and endorsement

The DGCA does not test you. It approves organisations and records the level you achieve on your licence. The DGCA portal lists "ELP Training and Testing Service Provider" under Personnel, then Training, then Pilot. That menu item opens a PDF titled "DGCA approved AELP Training & testing organizations", stamped "As on 01st Dec 2024", which named 11 organisations when we read it: InterGlobe Aviation (IndiGo), Flytech Aviation, Trans Aviacons, SpiceJet, Air India, Madhya Pradesh Flying Club, IGRUA, Academy of Carver Aviation, Chimes Aviation, Redbird Flight Training Academy and Jet Serve Aviation. Our DGCA ELP page sets out where each one trains and tests.

Fee

Not published for candidates. The portal's "User Fees" document (a proforma last modified in October 2021) has two English proficiency rows, both charges an organisation pays DGCA: approval as an "Aviation English Language Training Organisation/Testing Service Provider" under Rule 113C, from ₹2,00,000 to ₹8,00,000 by headcount, and renewal of that approval, from ₹1,00,000 to ₹4,00,000. The rows say they were last revised in 2017. Nothing in the document prices your test, so the fee is the provider's own and the provider is the only source worth quoting. Secondary sites print a per-attempt range in rupees; we could not trace it to an official page and do not repeat it. The portal's published help routes are the eGCA Support Cell on 1800-11-3422, the main DGCA line 91-11-24622495 and the feedback address feedback-dgca[at]gov[dot]in.

The booking route, step by step

1. Open the list on the DGCA portal and pick an organisation whose exact legal name appears there. Check the "As on" date; a certificate from an unlisted organisation may not be accepted.
2. Ask, in writing, for the fee, whether a re-test costs the same again, which test it delivers and how long it is, how many days until the certificate, and how the result reaches DGCA. Three of the 11 are airlines: ask whether they test candidates who are not their own pilots or cadets.
3. Book a slot. Each provider sets its own sessions. If you are part of a CPL batch, your flying school may book the batch together; confirm your name is on it.
4. Sit the test with the identity document you registered with. If the provider uses TEA, expect 25 to 30 minutes in 3 parts with one examiner (per the TEA page).
5. Collect the certificate and get the level onto your licence through eGCA. We have not seen the logged-in eGCA screens, so ask your school or the eGCA Support Cell which application carries the ELP result.

TEA (Mayflower College): booking, test day, certificate in 10 working days

TEA, the Test of English for Aviation, is the one route on this page with a public, worldwide list of centres a candidate can contact directly, including Hyderabad and Dubai. Everything in this section comes from the TEA page on aviation-english.com, the TEA Notes for Candidates (version 5.0), the TEA test locations page and Mayflower College's TEA Guide for Stakeholders, all read on 21 October 2026. The TEA page describes "a 25 - 30 minute test that consists of 3 parts", "face-to-face" with "1 examiner", "approved by the UK Civil Aviation Authority" and "many other national authorities".

Fee

Not published. Neither the TEA page, the Notes, the Guide for Stakeholders nor the Mayflower College page prints a price. Each TEA Centre sets and collects its own fee, so the figure you need is the one your centre gives you. Two fee rules are published without amounts. If you want the certificate delivered to your centre by courier rather than post, the Notes say to "speak to the local TEA Administrator about courier fees". And an appeal costs "the full test fee", refunded only if the appeal succeeds (Guide for Stakeholders; see the appeals section below).

Booking

The Notes say: "To find your nearest TEA Centre and register, go to our TEA locations webpage and contact the local TEA Administrator listed." There is no central online booking. The locations page lists, among others, Trans Aviacons in Hyderabad, India (TEA Centre No. 235, which is also on the DGCA list), AviA MEA in Dubai (No. 239), the University of Turkish Aeronautical Association in Ankara (No. 213) and the Australian University in Kuwait (No. 222), with centres also in Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Colombia, Hong Kong, Italy, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Macao, Macedonia, Morocco, Serbia, Spain and the United Kingdom. The same page carries a notice worth reading twice: "Under new regulations from EASA and the UK CAA, the following TEA Centres are the only test centres accepted by the UK CAA: Mayflower College, Plymouth, UK; EF European Flyers, Madrid, Spain; Australian College of Kuwait, Kuwait; Hong Kong Youth Aviation Academy; Trans Aviacons, Hyderabad, India; AviA MEA, Dubai, UAE." If you hold or want a UK licence, that list is the one that counts. For any other licence the Notes put the duty on you, in bold: "It is your responsibility to check that your licence-issuing authority accepts a TEA certificate from the TEA Centre where you take the test."

Test day

• Arrive "at least thirty minutes before your test" so the Administrator can check your details and take your photograph, which appears on the certificate.
• Bring "the passport or national identity card you registered with"; without it "you will not be allowed to take the test".
• Recording devices stay outside the room. The test itself is recorded "for security and quality purposes".
• "Your test result will not be available on the test day", and the examiner "will not give you any indication of how you have performed".
• Complaints about the test day go in writing to the TEA Centre and to TEA Head Office (tea@maycoll.co.uk) "within 48 hours of your test date".

Results

"Once your performance has been assessed and once the test has been checked for examiner standards, your certificate will be printed and posted to your TEA Centre within 10 working days of your test date." The certificate shows a score from 1 to 6 for each of Pronunciation, Structure, Vocabulary, Fluency, Comprehension and Interactions, and the Overall Score, which "will be the lowest of these scores". The Guide for Stakeholders adds that all TEA tests are recorded and archived, that examiners are monitored, and that a disagreement between the examiner and a Monitoring Examiner goes to a TEA Senior Examiner. Employers and regulators can check a certificate on the TEA certificate validator, which asks for the certificate number and the passport or ID number.

ELPAC (EUROCONTROL): no walk-in booking, result soon after Paper 2

ELPAC is EUROCONTROL's test for controllers and pilots. Per the ELPAC site (elpac.eurocontrol.int, read 21 October 2026), Paper 1 is a computer-marked listening test of 45 items with separate ATC and pilot versions, and Paper 2 is a live speaking test in three tasks, rated by two accredited assessors, an English Language Expert and an Operational Expert. The FAQ gives the timings: Paper 1 "takes about 38 minutes", and Paper 2 lasts roughly 20 to 25 minutes per test taker. Results are reported on ICAO Levels 3 to 6, and "the ICAO level awarded is determined by the lowest rating across the six criteria from both assessors; there is no compensatory marking". The FAQ says ELPAC ATC and ELPAC Pilot are recognised by ICAO under its Aviation English Language Test Service, with current recognition "valid through 31 December 2026" and a renewal application in preparation.

Fee

Not published. The ELPAC home page, the about-the-test page, the results page, the implementing-ELPAC page and the FAQ carry no price. ELPAC is licensed to organisations, not sold to individuals, so any cost sits inside your employer's or school's arrangement with EUROCONTROL. If you are asked to pay personally, ask the Test Administrator what the charge covers.

Booking

There is no public booking page. The implementing-ELPAC page says "ELPAC is governed by the ELPAC Licence Agreement issued by EUROCONTROL" and that "to become an ELPAC user organisation you must sign this agreement and designate a Test Administrator". The Test Administrator "schedules sessions in the ELPAC test system, allocates assessors and invigilators, and is the single point of contact". The user organisations are "ANSPs, airlines, training organisations and aviation authorities". So the booking question for you is a single one: is my employer or school an ELPAC user organisation? If yes, your Test Administrator books you; bring "a valid photo ID", per the FAQ. If no, you will sit a different approved test.

Results

Per the ELPAC results page, "the overall ICAO level is normally available very quickly after Paper 2", because both assessors rate live. "Your user organisation issues the official report to you and may also inform the relevant licensing authority." Before any of this, sit the free pilot or ATC sample test on elpactest.eu, which the sample-tests page says uses "the same audio playback as the live test".

The Gulf, Turkey, Egypt, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam

Pilots and controllers licensed outside India face the same structure with a different authority at the top. Here is what the official pages we read let us say, and where they fall silent. The TEA locations page lists centres in Dubai (AviA MEA, one of the six centres it says the UK CAA accepts), Ankara (University of Turkish Aeronautical Association) and Kuwait (Australian University). It lists no centre in Egypt, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman or Bahrain. That does not mean you cannot be tested there; it means TEA is not the local route, and your national authority's own approved tests are. We have not read the GCAA, ECAA, CAAP, DGCA Indonesia, CAAV or SHGM pages this week, so we give no fee, provider or timeline for them. Two rules still hold wherever you are. First, your licence-issuing authority decides which certificate it accepts, not the test provider; TEA's Notes say so in bold, and the ELPAC FAQ says "the authority makes the final decision". Second, a certificate for an Indian licence has to come from an organisation on the DGCA list, so check that list before paying a centre abroad. Our tests compared page sets the named tests side by side, with India availability marked.

What the result looks like and how long it lasts

Whatever the provider, the result has the same shape, because ICAO requires it. You receive a score from 1 to 6 on each of six criteria, and an overall level equal to the lowest of the six. TEA prints all six scores on the certificate and calls the lowest-score rule "a mandatory ICAO requirement"; ELPAC calls it "no compensatory marking". Level 4 or above meets the ICAO minimum; Level 3 and below does not.

The ELPAC FAQ ends its validity answer with the line that settles every argument: "Ultimately, the decision about validity is at the discretion of the competent authority." Secondary pages disagree on the ICAO Level 5 figure; the Aero Language FAQ, a provider page read on 21 October 2026, prints 5 years for ICAO Level 5, against 6 in the ELPAC FAQ. The same Aero Language FAQ makes a useful practical point: the binding date "is the date endorsed in your license", generally "end of month in which you took the exam plus the number of years". So the date on your licence wins over any table, including ours. Our levels and validity page lays the sourced tables side by side.

If you get Level 3: what it means and what to do

Level 3 is Pre-operational. It does not meet the ICAO minimum, so for a CPL student it delays the licence and for a renewing pilot it means the English language level lapses at the validity date. It also means a second fee, which is why you asked for the re-test price in writing. It is not rare. ELPAC's results page publishes a "2026 score distribution (snapshot)" from its user organisations worldwide, with data to 15 June 2026:

So on ELPAC about one flight crew test taker in seven finished below Level 4 in the first half of 2026. These are ELPAC figures only; TEA and the DGCA-listed organisations publish no equivalent, and a different test population could look quite different. Here is what to do in the week after a 3.

1. Find the 3. The certificate shows six scores, and the level is the lowest, not the average. That one criterion is the whole problem.
2. Match it to a task (TalkDrill's reading of the TEA format). A 3 in Comprehension points to Part 2, where recordings play once unless you ask for a repeat; a 3 in Interactions points to Part 2C and the Part 3 discussion; a 3 in Structure or Fluency usually shows first in the Part 1 interview. Our rating scale page gives the Level 3 and Level 4 lines for each criterion.
3. Train that one criterion for three weeks. One non-routine recording re-told a day for Comprehension; a spoken AI role-play three times a week for Interactions; read-aloud drills on numbers and call signs for Pronunciation. The 30-day roadmap sequences all of it.
4. Re-book only after a timed mock scores 4 on the weak criterion twice in a row (our rule of thumb, not a provider rule). Examiners rate the performance in front of them; previous 5s do not carry over, and neither does the previous 3.

Re-sits, appeals and complaints, test by test

If you think the result is wrong rather than weak, there is a route. TEA's appeal procedure is in Mayflower College's Guide for Stakeholders, linked from the TEA page; ELPAC's is on its results page and FAQ. Neither publishes a minimum wait before a re-sit, and the DGCA list says nothing on either point, so a DGCA-listed provider's rules are whatever it tells you in writing.

One judgement call, labelled as ours: an appeal suits a candidate whose recording was disturbed, or whose result sits one criterion below a level they hold on every other test. It does not suit a candidate who knew in the room that comprehension was slipping. That candidate gets more from three weeks of training on the weak criterion and a clean re-sit.

Eight questions to ask before you pay

Because no provider on this page publishes a candidate fee, the quote you get is the contract. Ask these eight questions by email so the answers are in writing.

Keep the email with your booking confirmation. If the result is ever questioned, the written answers and a copy of the DGCA list showing the provider are your evidence. The official pages behind every sentence here are listed, with their verification status, on our official resources page; the three you will use most are the DGCA portal, the TEA page and the ELPAC results page.