How to use this list, and what "verified" means
This page is the inventory behind every number on the Aviation English hub. It lists the official pages a pilot or air traffic controller needs for the ICAO English language proficiency requirement, in the order you will need them: the ICAO standard, the Indian regulator and its provider list, the two tests we could document end to end (ELPAC and TEA), the other regulators, and the secondary pages we used for one fact each. Every row carries a status. Verified means our fetcher received the page or PDF on 20 or 21 October 2026 and we read the words we quote. Unverified means the host refused us (icao.int and faa.gov both returned 403 Forbidden to every fetcher we tried), so we link the page but give anything that depends on it as "per ICAO Annex 1" rather than as a quote. Two paths we guessed, at the UK CAA and at SKYbrary, returned 404, and we describe them without a link, because a dead link is worse than none. The list is re-checked weekly; the hub's changelog records any change.
- The DGCA AELP organisation list (India): the 11 approved organisations, as on 1 December 2024.
- The TEA Notes for Candidates, two pages that explain the TEA test part by part.
- The ELPAC sample tests, a free official mock that uses the live test's audio playback.
- The TEA example Level 4 candidate, to hear what the minimum sounds like.
ICAO: the standard (Annex 1, Doc 9835, the LPR page)
ICAO sets the requirement and the rating scale but runs no test. The provisions that matter to you, per ICAO Annex 1 (icao.int could not be fetched this week), are: pilots and controllers must demonstrate the ability to speak and understand the language used for radiotelephony; six criteria are rated (pronunciation, structure, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, interactions) on a scale from 1 to 6; Operational Level 4 is the minimum; Level 4 should be re-evaluated at least every 3 years and Level 5 at least every 6 years, and Level 6 is not re-evaluated. Doc 9835 is the implementation manual that carries the holistic descriptors and guidance for test designers. The providers we could read work to the same rules: the TEA Notes call the lowest-score rule "a mandatory ICAO requirement", and the ELPAC FAQ gives the same 3 and 6-year intervals.
| Resource | What it is for | Status (20 and 21 Oct 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| ICAO: Language Proficiency Requirements | The LPR landing page: Annex 1 provisions and links to Doc 9835. | Unverified: 403 Forbidden to every fetcher. |
| ICAO Doc 9835 (Manual on the Implementation of ICAO Language Proficiency Requirements) | The holistic descriptors, the rating scale with its level-by-level wording, guidance on test design. | Unverified: same host; not linked separately. |
| ICAO Annex 1, Personnel Licensing | The standard your licence refers to. Your national regulator's rules implement it. | Unverified: same host; not linked separately. |
Practical advice: you do not need Doc 9835 to prepare. The ELPAC about-the-test page sets out the Level 3, 4, 5 and 6 wording for each criterion, and our rating scale page turns the Level 3 and Level 4 lines into plain English. The manual matters to employers and schools designing a training programme.
India: the DGCA portal, the AELP list and eGCA
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation approves the organisations that train and test, and records your ELP level on the licence. Its public portal (read 20 and 21 October 2026) opens documents from a public file store when you click a menu item, and two of those documents matter here. The eGCA licensing system sits behind a login we did not enter, and the Civil Aviation Requirement that sets out the candidate side of the scheme was not on a page we could fetch, so we quote no CAR number.
| Resource | What it is for | Status |
|---|---|---|
| DGCA portal home | Menu path Personnel, Training, Pilot, then "ELP Training and Testing Service Provider" (in Hindi, "ईएलपी प्रशिक्षण एवं परीक्षण सेवा प्रदाता"). eGCA login via the user icon. eGCA Support Cell 1800-11-3422; DGCA line 91-11-24622495; feedback-dgca[at]gov[dot]in. | Verified. |
| DGCA approved AELP Training and testing organisations (PDF) | The PDF that menu item opens, stamped "As on 01st Dec 2024": 11 organisations, where each trains and tests, and a contact for each. The authoritative list; check its date before you book. | Verified, 21 Oct 2026. |
| DGCA User Fees (PDF) | Opened from the portal header. A 33-page proforma last modified in October 2021. Its only English proficiency rows are organisation charges under Rule 113C (approval ₹2,00,000 to ₹8,00,000 by headcount; renewal ₹1,00,000 to ₹4,00,000; last revised 2017). No candidate test fee. | Verified, 21 Oct 2026. |
| DGCA CAR on English language proficiency | The regulation text, useful for an appeal or an employer query. | Not on a page we could fetch; take it from the portal's regulations section, not from a coaching site. |
What the portal does not give you: a candidate fee, a date sheet, or a format. The fee is the provider's; there are no national dates; the format is whichever test the provider delivers, and the list does not say which. Our DGCA ELP page sets out the 11 organisations by city and the route from provider to licence, and the fees, booking and results page lists the eight questions to put to a provider in writing.
ELPAC (EUROCONTROL): format, samples, results, FAQ
ELPAC is EUROCONTROL's test, developed with the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) and operated with ENOVATE, and delivered through user organisations (air navigation service providers, airlines, training organisations and authorities) rather than walk-in centres. Its site, elpac.eurocontrol.int, is the most complete official test site we found in this field, and every page below answered our fetcher on 21 October 2026.
| Resource | What it is for | Status |
|---|---|---|
| ELPAC home | Paper 1: "45 items, computer-marked, separate ATC and Pilot versions". Paper 2: live speaking rated by "two accredited assessors: an ELE and an OPE". Levels 3 to 6; "no compensatory marking". | Verified. |
| About the test | Paper 1 has four parts in the ATC version and five in the pilot version. Paper 2 has three tasks: standard phraseology with an unusual situation on the frequency, picture description with hypothesising and problem-solving, and conversation about aviation topics. Sets out the rating scale wording for Levels 3 to 6. | Verified. |
| Sample tests | Free ATC and pilot sample tests on elpactest.eu, no sign-in, "the same audio playback as the live test". Use headphones and a desktop browser. | Verified. |
| Results, re-sits and appeals | Overall level "normally available very quickly after Paper 2"; the user organisation issues the official report; a Third Assessor settles disagreements and appeals, and "the Third Assessor's decision is final". Also a 2026 score distribution: of 703 flight crew, 15.1% finished below Level 4; of 767 controllers, 16.4% (data to 15 June 2026). | Verified. |
| Implementing ELPAC | For employers and schools: the ELPAC Licence Agreement, the Test Administrator role, assessor training and accreditation. No fee published. | Verified. |
| FAQ | Paper 1 about 38 minutes, Paper 2 roughly 20 to 25. Bring a valid photo ID. Validity: Level 4 three years, Level 5 six, Level 6 not re-assessed, with EASA variations. Partial re-sits possible. ICAO recognition under AELTS "valid through 31 December 2026". The answers sit in collapsed panels; we read them from the page's FAQ data. | Verified, 21 Oct 2026. |
Controllers in India should note that the DGCA list sits under pilot training and none of its 11 organisations is the Airports Authority of India; whether AAI tests its controllers through ELPAC or another provider is a question for the employer, and our controller page marks what we could not confirm.
TEA (Mayflower College): page, notes, guide, locations, validator
TEA, the Test of English for Aviation, is owned by Mayflower College in Plymouth. It has a centre in India (Trans Aviacons, Hyderabad, which is also on the DGCA list) and one in the Gulf (AviA MEA, Dubai). Its official material is spread across three domains, aviation-english.com, maycoll.co.uk and study-english-online.com, all linked from the TEA page. Every page below answered our fetcher on 21 October 2026.
| Resource | What it is for | Status |
|---|---|---|
| TEA page | "A 25 - 30 minute test that consists of 3 parts"; Part 1 interview 7 to 8 minutes, Part 2 interactive comprehension 8 to 12 minutes (2A six recordings, 2B four longer recordings, 2C three short recordings), Part 3 picture description and discussion 10 minutes; "1 examiner"; "approved by the UK Civil Aviation Authority". Links to everything below. | Verified. |
| Notes for Candidates (PDF, version 5.0) | Two pages: what each part asks, why regular repeats cost Comprehension marks, test-day rules (arrive thirty minutes early, registered passport or national ID, recorded), six scores with the lowest as the level, certificate "within 10 working days of your test date", complaints within 48 hours. | Verified. |
| Guide for Stakeholders (PDF) | How TEA was designed (plain English, not phraseology; language, not operational procedure), example Part 1 questions, how examiners are trained and monitored, and the appeals procedure: write to the centre within one month of certificate dispatch, return the certificate, pay the full test fee, refunded if successful. | Verified. |
| Test locations | Every TEA Centre with its number and contact; Hyderabad (No. 235), Dubai (No. 239), Ankara (No. 213), Kuwait (No. 222) and 16 other countries and territories; the six centres the UK CAA accepts. Booking is by contacting the local TEA Administrator. | Verified. |
| Mayflower College: aviation English | The owner's page: "Globally, 75,000+ pilots and controllers have taken T.E.A."; test centre operations in "20+ countries". No fee. | Verified. |
| Example Level 4 candidate | A Level 4 performance at the Plymouth centre on TEA version 5.0, linked from the TEA page: Pronunciation 5, Structure 4, Vocabulary 4, Fluency 4, Comprehension 4, Interactions 5, overall 4, with the examiner's summary ("repeated loss of fluency when searching for vocabulary and structures"). The single most useful page for calibrating yourself. | Verified. |
| Certificate validator | For employers and authorities: certificate number plus passport or ID number, "exactly as they are printed on the certificate". | Verified. |
| tea-test.com | The address the Notes give for the sample test, the Guide for Candidates and Part 2 practice. It redirected our fetcher to the TEA page above, so use that link. | Redirects; not listed separately. |
Other regulators: FAA, UK CAA, EASA and what we could not reach
Readers in the Gulf, Turkey, Egypt, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam are licensed by their own authorities, and the pages below are the ones we tried this week. We list the FAA pages because cadets who train in the United States meet the FAA's rules first.
| Resource | What it is for | Status |
|---|---|---|
| FAA: English language proficiency | How the FAA applies the ICAO standard to its certificate holders and its "English Proficient" endorsement. | Unverified: 403 to every fetcher on 20 and 21 Oct 2026. |
| FAA Advisory Circular AC 60-28B (PDF) | The FAA's guidance document on the ICAO English language standard. | Unverified: 403. |
| UK CAA: language proficiency | The CAA page on English language endorsements and approved tests. The path we tried returned 404, so no link; the TEA locations page names the six TEA Centres the CAA accepts. | Not linked: 404 on our guessed path. |
| EASA: language proficiency (Part-FCL) | European intervals differ from the ICAO recommendation: the ELPAC FAQ says flight crew Level 4 is extended to 4 years and controller Level 6 is capped at 9 years in EASA states. The EASA rule text is the source to read for a European licence. | Not fetched this week; no link until we have read it. |
| SKYbrary: ICAO Language Proficiency Requirements | A reference article. Our guessed path returned 404 and the site search found nothing for the phrase. | Not linked: 404. |
| GCAA (UAE), ECAA (Egypt), CAAP (Philippines), DGCA Indonesia, CAAV (Vietnam), SHGM (Turkey) | Each authority's approved test list and endorsement procedure. | Not fetched this week; ask your authority or school which test it accepts. |
Secondary sources we used, and for what
Two non-official pages appear in our notes, each for one narrow purpose. We name them so you can see where a fact came from, not because they carry authority.
- Aero Language FAQ (a test provider; read 21 October 2026). Used for one practical rule: the binding expiry "is the date endorsed in your license", generally "end of month in which you took the exam plus the number of years". Its validity table prints ICAO pilot intervals of 3 years at Level 4 and 5 years at Level 5, EASA intervals of 4 and 6 years, and controller intervals of 3, 6 and 9 years. The 5-year ICAO figure differs from the Annex 1 recommendation of 6 years as widely published and from the ELPAC FAQ, which is one reason we do not take intervals from any single provider.
- Wikipedia: Aviation English (read 21 October 2026). Used only for the names and owners of two tests we have not fetched, TEAP (Anglo-Continental School) and EALTS (LTAS Ltd), and for the background that the ICAO amendments date from 2003. It does not mention RELTA or Versant Aviation, and we use it for no number.
We do not cite competitor course pages, flying-school blogs or forum posts for any fact, and we do not reproduce the fee ranges they print.
What not to trust, and how to tell
The ICAO English search results are crowded with pages that look official and are not. Three checks tell them apart.
- Does the page sell the test it describes? Many "free ICAO sample test" pages belong to small providers and lead to a paid exam. Use them for practice if you like, but take the rules (validity, format, fees) from the regulator or the provider your authority accepts.
- Does it print a DGCA fee or a list of "DGCA-approved" centres without linking DGCA's own PDF? Then it is quoting another blog. The DGCA list is the PDF behind the portal's menu item, and it carries an "As on" date; a page that names centres not on it, or prints a candidate fee as "the DGCA fee", has not checked. DGCA's user-fees document has no candidate fee at all.
- Does it give one validity table with no source? ICAO, EASA and controller intervals differ, and even provider pages disagree on the ICAO Level 5 figure. A page that prints one set of numbers as "the rule" has not checked. Our levels and validity page shows the sourced tables side by side, and your licence shows the date that binds you.
When you have read the official pages, the practice comes next: the practice bank has 40 items with model answers (interview questions, picture prompts, pilot and controller non-routine role-plays, listening and read-back drills), and AI role-play lets you talk through a diversion or a medical case in plain English with a partner that answers back. Both are built to the six criteria on this page.