Studying aviation in Saudi Arabia: the complete guide

September 2026 · 9 min read · Sky Team Aviation Academy

If you are in Riyadh, Jeddah or Dammam and thinking about studying aviation, the questions on your mind are three, no more: can I study inside the Kingdom at all, what does studying cost and how long does it take, and will the licence I come out with actually open an airline’s door for me? This guide answers all three, in the same order. And you will notice something unusual in it: where we have no official source that we have read ourselves, we say so plainly and put a marker where the number would be instead of guessing it. The Sky Team values here are taken from our approved tables, and decisions that concern Saudi bodies are taken from the body itself before you pay a single riyal.

Yes, it is possible to study aviation in Saudi Arabia. Training for pilot licences inside the Kingdom takes place at training organisations approved by the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), which is the body that issues the licence and approves the syllabus and the flight hours. And you have three routes in front of you: a sponsored cadet programme, training inside the Kingdom at your own expense, or training abroad for an international licence and then converting it with the Authority.

The difference between the three routes is not in the quality of the licence but in who pays and when you start: the sponsored programme is the cheapest for you and the hardest to get into, because it is selective and tied to the date it is announced, while the other two routes start once your papers are complete. That is why we put all three in one table in the cost section below.

And here is a point many people ask about: is studying aviation in Saudi Arabia free? Sponsored training comes through the cadet and scholarship programmes announced by organisations and airlines. We have no official source that we have read ourselves telling us who bears the cost in any of these programmes, what its admission requirements are, or when its intake opens; these three are set by the announcing body’s own announcement and are read from it directly, not from an intermediary. The practical meaning is that you build your plan on a cost you can see in writing today, not on a programme that has not been announced yet.

You will not find in this section a list of academies copied from other websites. The reason is simple, and we state it as it is: the official sources that publish the list of approved training organisations and their admission requirements do not open for us from outside the Kingdom; we read them from a connection outside Saudi Arabia and they are blocked to us. And publishing names, fees and requirements that we have not read ourselves from their official source is exactly what makes a student travel or pay on the basis of outdated information.

So we state precisely what we found and what we did not find:

• A Saudi academy named in an official register: The National Aviation Academy, a national initiative established as a non-profit technical and vocational training institute, based at Thumamah Airport in Riyadh, whose board of trustees is chaired by His Royal Highness Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. Its published programmes include the private pilot programme and the commercial pilot programme, alongside the commercial helicopter pilot programme, aircraft maintenance, unmanned aircraft and the English-language preparatory year.
• The source and the date it was read: the register of training establishments at the National Center for Strategic Partnerships (ncsp.org.sa), consulted on 23 September 2026. And the limit of this source must be clear to you: it is a register of training establishments, not the list of training organisations approved by the General Authority of Civil Aviation. It proves that this academy exists and is officially listed, and it cannot serve as evidence that it is the complete list of approved bodies. The website of the General Authority of Civil Aviation and the website of the Saudi Academy of Civil Aviation did not respond to our connection from outside the Kingdom on either 18 or 23 September 2026.
• A distinction that saves you time: the same register includes the Airports Academy in Jeddah, but its published programmes are airport services, aviation security and ground-crew leadership, that is, ground jobs, not pilot training. Do not go to it looking for a flying licence.
• Admission requirements and fees: no source we have read ourselves has published them, neither in the register nor on the academy’s website. The register carries an application link for each programme separately, and that is the right door: ask the academy itself for the requirements and fees in writing before any commitment.

Until that is completed, here is what makes any list unnecessary: five questions to ask any training provider, in the Kingdom or outside it, and ask for the answer in writing, not verbally.

• Which civil aviation authority approves you, and what is the approval number? The answer determines the licence you will actually hold, and it is the most important question in the whole call.
• What licence do I come out with at the end of the programme? Student, private or commercial, and with which ratings: night flying, instrument flying, multi-engine.
• How many actual flight hours does the price include, and what happens if I need extra hours? The extra hour is the item that surprises students most.
• How many aircraft are in the training fleet, and how many students per aircraft? This ratio, not the size of the building, is what determines whether you will finish the programme on time or wait for your turn.
• What does the amount include and what does it not include? Books, exams, the medical examination, the language test, accommodation and the uniform: every item not stated in writing is an item you will pay for later.

The path from today’s decision to the first officer’s seat is ordered and does not allow skipping its steps. The values below are Sky Team’s approved admission requirements and programme values; anything that concerns Saudi bodies is confirmed with the body itself, as in the previous section.

And what about the airline transport pilot licence (ATPL)? It is the captain’s licence, and its hours are not studied in a training programme but built up on the job after you become a first officer, which is why it does not appear among the pre-employment steps above. If you want the figure this path leads to, read our page on pilot salaries in the Saudi market, which sets out the components and ranges attributed to their sources.

Admission on the route inside the Kingdom usually passes through four gates: the Qiyas tests, an English-language test, a medical examination, then an admission test or interview conducted by the institution itself. These are the gates; the required scores are set by each institution in its intake announcement, and they change from year to year.

• The Qiyas tests: the General Aptitude Test and the Achievement Test, which are a recurring requirement in diploma and bachelor’s programmes inside the Kingdom.
• English-language test: STEP or IELTS or their equivalent. English is not an administrative requirement here but the language of the syllabus and of radio communication itself.
• The medical examination: it is carried out at an approved provider, and its class varies with the licence. Ask the provider or an approved aviation medical examiner about any particular health condition before paying, not after.
• Admission test and interview: conducted by the academy or college, and they usually include an assessment of fitness and readiness.

As for the specific percentages and scores required, we leave them without a number on purpose, and for a reason we state plainly: no Saudi body that we were able to read ourselves has published them. The percentages and scores circulating online are not attributed to the body that sets them, and a percentage copied from an article may be for a past intake or for another specialisation entirely. So ask the institution directly about four specific items: the minimum secondary-school percentage, the aptitude score, the achievement score, and the STEP level or its equivalent, and ask for them in writing for your own intake. We tried to read the requirements on the official website of the Saudi Academy of Civil Aviation and on the website of the General Authority of Civil Aviation on 18 September 2026 and tried again on 23 September 2026, and neither responded to a connection from outside the Kingdom. Ask the institution for the requirements directly, and do not rely on a number repeated in an article.

For comparison, Sky Team’s admission requirements are published and specific: age 17 to 30 years, a secondary-school certificate in any stream with a pass grade and no minimum percentage, English at B2 level or close to it, with anyone below that studying a language course before travelling, then a medical examination. No aptitude test, no achievement test and no admission percentage.

The cost of studying aviation is not set by the country but by the route you choose and who pays on it. In sponsored programmes, the announcing body’s own announcement sets who bears the cost of training and what commitment the student gives in return, and we do not publish any condition about them that we have not read in their announcement. In training at your own expense inside the Kingdom, the academy sets it, and we do not publish a figure for it that we have not read from its source. On the Sky Team route the figure is published and fixed: 46,000 USD for the training programme, and 2,000 USD in admission and registration fees.

Whatever the route, the figure shown in the announcement is not necessarily the figure you will pay: what the amount includes and what it does not differs from one offer to another, so ask for it in writing, item by item, before any financial commitment.

From day one to the commercial licence: 12 to 18 months on the Sky Team programme, that is, one year to a year and a half, not four years. Within that, the private pilot licence takes 6 months, night flying two weeks to a month, instrument flying about a month, and multi-engine two weeks. Studying aviation is not a four-year academic college but a professional training programme divided into stages, each stage ending with an exam and a licence or rating in your hand.

What actually makes it take longer? Three things, the first of which has nothing to do with you: the weather and grounded training flights, the ratio of students to aircraft in the training fleet, and then your own preparation for the theory exams. The student who finishes their subjects as they go flies on schedule; the one who puts them off finds themselves waiting for their turn at the end of the intake. As for the airline transport pilot licence, it has no duration in months, because it depends on building up 1,500 flight hours on the job.

The third route open to you is to train outside the Kingdom and come out with an international licence, then convert it with the Authority, and this is the Sky Team route. The training base we work with in South Africa operates under the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA), and the start of your studies with us is tied to your admission papers and medical examination being complete, not to an announcement date you wait for. The details of this choice and the reasons for it are on the studying in South Africa page.

All the theory lectures are taught in English, the language you will later work in, in the cockpit and in every contact with air traffic control. What worries a student coming from outside the country is what surrounds the training, not the training itself, and here is what the admissions team handles with you:

• The medical examination, with a companion from the academy from the first procedure until the travel procedures are finished, so you are not going round the offices on your own.
• English placement at the partner IH centre, with all the appointments booked for you.
• Measurements taken and the full uniform handed over before travel.
• Medical insurance in South Africa that covers hospital treatment without you paying anything.
• Obtaining the visa, accompanying you to the embassy until you come out with it in your hand.

If you want to see the stages one by one, with their hours, duration and entry requirements, each stage has its own separate page within flight courses, from the private licence up to the airline transport pilot licence and the type rating.