Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of bringing forward the date of 1 April 2021 that the UK Commercial Pilot Licence can be applied for via the Civil Aviation Authority.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is currently developing a process to enable pilots who have previously held a UK issued EASA Part-Flight Crew Licence (FCL), but now hold a licence that was issued by an EASA member state prior to 31 December 2020, to apply for the issue of a UK Part-FCL licence. The CAA aim to make this process as simple and efficient as possible. This will be available from 1 April 2021.

Pilots holding licences issued by EASA member states will not immediately require a UK Part-FCL licence to enable them to fly UK registered aircraft, as pilots holding licences issued by EASA member states prior to 31 December 2020 will be able to continue to operate UK registered aircraft for a period of up to two years from the end of the Transition Period, or until the expiry date, whichever is sooner.

Given this, we believe the 1 April 2021 date to be sufficient.