Choosing which national aviation authority to sit your ATPL theory exams with is a decision you make once, before you book anything — and it fixes your costs, your travel, your sitting structure and your resit logistics for the entire theory phase. The EASA-wide rules are identical everywhere; almost everything else is not. This guide compares the authorities candidates most commonly choose, and is honest about which figures we have verified and which we have not.
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The number nobody publishes plainly
Austro Control’s own fee is €45.60 per ATPL paper (fee schedule dated 01.07.2022) — but the exams are delivered by external centres charging €110–€120 per subject on top. The real all-in cost is roughly 3× the headline. And no-shows are still invoiced.
The examination rules themselves come from FCL.025 of Reg. (EU) 1178/2011 and do not change with your choice of authority:
The exact quotes and the validity periods for your passes are on the dedicated sittings & limits page.
FCL.025 caps you at 6 sittings, but Part-FCL never defines the word — FCL.010’s definitions contain no entry for “sitting”. Each authority defines it itself, and the spread is 2×: the UK CAA works to 10 days, Transport Malta to 5 consecutive working days (with “Only one attempt at each examination paper is allowed in one sitting”), and the DGAC to 5 consecutive days for ATPL/CPL.
That difference changes how many subjects you can group into one exam-centre visit, and therefore how many trips your whole theory phase takes. One caution: the UK CAA’s own page attributes its 10-day definition to FCL.025 — which contains no such definition. The 10 days is real; the attribution is their error.
Cells marked ⚠️ Not yet verified are exactly that: we have not yet confirmed them against a primary source, and we would rather show you the gap than fill it with a plausible number. Verified figures carry their caveats inline.
Fees are reviewed each January and April — both the UK CAA and the IAA changed fees on 1 January / 1 April 2026.
| Authority | Cost per subject | Sitting definition | Exam language | ATO requirement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austro ControlAustriaThe headline fee is the number everyone quotes; the external-centre charge on top is the number that actually hits your card. | €45.60 per ATPL paper (authority fee, schedule dated 01.07.2022) + €110–€120 per subject charged by the external exam centres that actually deliver the exams. Real all-in cost is roughly 3× the headline fee. No-shows are still invoiced. | ⚠️ Not yet verified — check the authority’s current published schedule. | ⚠️ Not yet verified — check the authority’s current published schedule. | ⚠️ Not yet verified — check the authority’s current published schedule. |
| UK CAAUnited KingdomPost-Brexit the UK CAA is no longer an EASA authority — a UK pass counts towards a UK licence, not an EASA one. Fees changed on 1 January and 1 April 2026; check the current scheme of charges. | ⚠️ Not yet verified — check the authority’s current published schedule. | A sitting spans 10 days. (The CAA’s own page attributes this definition to FCL.025 — which contains no such definition. The 10 days is their rule; the attribution is their error.) | ⚠️ Not yet verified — check the authority’s current published schedule. | ⚠️ Not yet verified — check the authority’s current published schedule. |
| ENACItalyMoving to ECQB 2026 EM 2 on 1 October 2026. | €40 per subject — plus administrative charges, so not an all-in figure. | ⚠️ Not yet verified — check the authority’s current published schedule. | ⚠️ Not yet verified — check the authority’s current published schedule. | ⚠️ ATO attestation requirement not yet verified. |
| DGACFrance | ⚠️ Not yet verified — check the authority’s current published schedule. | 5 consecutive days for ATPL/CPL; 3 for the IR. | ⚠️ Not yet verified — check the authority’s current published schedule. | ⚠️ Not yet verified — check the authority’s current published schedule. |
| Transport MaltaMalta | ⚠️ Not yet verified — check the authority’s current published schedule. | 5 consecutive working days — and "Only one attempt at each examination paper is allowed in one sitting." | ⚠️ Not yet verified — check the authority’s current published schedule. | ⚠️ Not yet verified — check the authority’s current published schedule. |
| AESASpain | ⚠️ 2026 tariff not yet verified. | ⚠️ Not yet verified — check the authority’s current published schedule. | ⚠️ Not yet verified — check the authority’s current published schedule. | ⚠️ Not yet verified — check the authority’s current published schedule. |
| LBAGermanyExam locations not yet verified either. | ⚠️ Fees not yet verified. | ⚠️ Not yet verified — check the authority’s current published schedule. | ⚠️ Not yet verified — check the authority’s current published schedule. | ⚠️ Not yet verified — check the authority’s current published schedule. |
| IAAIrelandImplemented ECQB 2026 on 1 August 2026 (ECQB 2024 until 31 July). Fees changed on 1 January / 1 April 2026; check the current schedule. | ⚠️ Not yet verified — check the authority’s current published schedule. | ⚠️ Not yet verified — check the authority’s current published schedule. | ⚠️ Not yet verified. | ⚠️ Not yet verified — check the authority’s current published schedule. |
All EASA authorities draw exam questions from the same central bank, but they migrate to new ECQB editions on their own timetables — the IAA moved to ECQB 2026 on 1 August 2026, ENAC moves on 1 October 2026, and there is no central EASA register of who is on what. Before you commit to an authority, read which ECQB version is your exam?
Important: Authority fees, locations and session arrangements change; the Austro Control fee schedule cited above is dated 01.07.2022, and several cells in the comparison are still marked unverified. Always confirm the current published figures with the authority itself before booking. Where this page says a figure is unverified, treat that literally.
The FCL.025 rules — 75% pass mark, 4 attempts per paper, 6 sittings, the 18-month window — are identical with every EASA authority, and your passes go towards the same EASA licence. What differs is everything practical: cost per subject, where the exam centres are, how a "sitting" is defined, session frequency, language options and booking logistics.
Austro Control’s own fee is €45.60 per ATPL paper (per its fee schedule dated 01.07.2022) — but the exams are delivered by external centres that charge roughly €110–€120 per subject on top, so the real all-in cost is about three times the headline figure. Note also that no-shows are still invoiced.
Part-FCL never defines it — FCL.010 has no entry for "sitting", so each authority defines it themselves. The UK CAA works to 10 days, Transport Malta to 5 consecutive working days, and the French DGAC to 5 consecutive days for ATPL/CPL. That two-fold spread changes how many subjects you can group per sitting.
Theory passes are tied to the authority you sit with, so switching mid-way is at best an administrative process and at worst a restart — confirm the position with both authorities before assuming anything transfers. This is exactly why the authority decision is worth making carefully before your first booking.
All EASA member-state authorities draw their questions from EASA’s European Central Question Bank (ECQB). However, states migrate to new ECQB editions on their own timetables, so which edition you face depends on your authority and your exam date — ask them which version they are examining from.
Practise all 13 subjects with questions organised by the EASA syllabus, mock exams at the real 75% pass mark, and per-topic readiness tracking.
