If you fly or control traffic in Europe, your ICAO English proficiency test is likely the ELPAC — English Language Proficiency for Aeronautical Communication, developed by EUROCONTROL. It is structured quite differently from interview-style tests like the TEA, and knowing the format in advance changes how you should prepare.
The Big Picture
- Two papers: Paper 1 is a listening comprehension test (about 45 minutes); Paper 2 is an oral interaction test (about 20 minutes)
- Two examiners: Paper 2 is conducted by an operational examiner (pilot or ATC background matching yours) and an English language expert
- Levels assessed: 4 and 5, with an optional additional paper for Level 6 once you hold Level 5
- Two versions: ELPAC Pilots and ELPAC ATC — same structure, role-appropriate content
- Scoring: the six ICAO criteria, and you need your weakest criterion at Level 4 or above to pass
Paper 1: Listening Comprehension (~45 minutes)
Paper 1 tests your understanding of real-world aeronautical communications — pilot-controller exchanges in both routine and non-routine situations. The recordings start short and simple (numbers, single words, readback-style items) and become progressively longer and more complex, eventually involving multiple communication partners.
Two preparation implications follow directly from this design. First, accent flexibility matters: the recordings reflect international aviation, not BBC English. Second, stamina matters: 45 minutes of focused listening is longer than most pilots ever practice. Train with extended listening sessions — live ATC feeds, aviation podcasts, incident recordings — rather than two-minute clips.
Paper 2: Oral Interaction (~20 minutes, two examiners)
Paper 2 is task-based. The early tasks stay close to your daily operational environment — communication in familiar working situations. The later tasks deliberately push you outside routine phraseology: unusual situations where standard words no longer cover what you need to say, and you must switch to plain English to describe, explain, and resolve.
This transition — from phraseology to plain English under pressure — is exactly what the ICAO requirements were created to test, and it is where preparation pays off most. The skill is narrating the unexpected: an unusual indication, a passenger issue, a runway obstruction. Practice describing abnormal situations out loud in plain English, with a clear structure: what happened, what you need, what you intend to do.
Our practice materials — built around non-routine scenarios with examiner follow-up questions — train precisely this narration skill, and our guide to asking for clarification professionally applies to the interactive tasks directly.
Level 6: The Optional Extra Paper
Unlike some national systems, ELPAC handles Level 6 through an additional optional assessment, available once you have achieved Level 5. If your goal is escaping the retest cycle permanently, the path runs through a strong Level 5 performance first — worth knowing when you plan your preparation timeline.
How ELPAC Preparation Differs from Interview-Style Tests
- Weight your listening practice heavily. A 45-minute listening paper is unusual among ICAO tests — many candidates underprepare for it.
- Drill the phraseology-to-plain-English switch. Take any routine transmission and extend it: “…and now the situation develops. Explain it in plain English.”
- Practice with an operational partner if possible. Paper 2’s two-examiner format includes an operational expert — your explanations need to satisfy a professional listener, not just a language teacher.
ELPAC vs TEA: Which Test Will You Take?
You usually do not choose — your civil aviation authority does. But if you operate across jurisdictions, the practical differences matter: the TEA is a single 25–30 minute interview with one examiner and no dedicated listening paper; the ELPAC splits listening into its own 45-minute test and puts two examiners in the room for speaking. TEA preparation leans toward interview fluency and picture description; ELPAC preparation demands serious listening stamina and comfort switching between phraseology and plain English. The six scoring criteria — and the lowest-score rule — are identical in both. Skills transfer almost completely; only the format changes.
Taking a different test? See our guides to the TEA and the ICAO level descriptors. And if you have taken the ELPAC recently, share your experience anonymously — every report helps the next pilot prepare.