Why MCC Is Necessary for Pilots Entering Commercial Aviation

The transition from a single-pilot cockpit to a two-pilot airline flight deck is one of the biggest steps in any aviator's career. Multi Crew Cooperation — the MCC course — is the training that makes that step possible, and for a very good reason it is a mandatory milestone on the road to a commercial airline job.

If you have just earned your Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL), you have proven you can fly an aircraft on your own. But an airliner is never flown by one person. It is operated by a crew of at least two pilots working in constant coordination. Flying solo and flying as a crew are genuinely different skills — and MCC is where you learn the second one.

What exactly is MCC?

Multi Crew Cooperation is a structured course that teaches licensed pilots how to operate safely and efficiently as part of a two-person flight crew. Rather than teaching you how to fly a particular aircraft, it teaches you how to function as a member of a professional crew: how to divide tasks, communicate clearly, cross-check each other, and manage a high workload together.

Under European rules, a standard MCC course consists of a minimum of 25 hours of theoretical instruction and a minimum of 20 hours of practical training in a qualified simulator such as an FNPT II MCC device. At VDL Aviation, this is exactly what our EASA-certified Boeing 737-800 simulator is qualified for.

Why is MCC a legal requirement?

MCC is not optional. Under EASA Part-FCL (rule FCL.735.A), a CPL holder cannot be issued a multi-pilot aircraft type rating without first completing MCC training. It is also required for the issuance of an Airline Transport Pilot Licence (ATPL). In short: no MCC, no type rating, no airline job. It is the gateway qualification between your training and your first commercial cockpit.

The regulation exists because of decades of aviation safety experience. Modern airliners are complex, and events during a flight can develop very quickly. It simply is not feasible for one person to manage a commercial operation alone at the level of safety the industry demands. Two coordinated pilots, each monitoring the other, are the foundation of that safety.

What does MCC actually teach you?

The heart of MCC is the development of non-technical skills — the human skills that single-pilot training never had reason to cover. The most important of these fall under Crew Resource Management (CRM):

• Role division: In a two-pilot cockpit the roles of Pilot Flying (PF) and Pilot Monitoring (PM) are shared and swapped between legs — independent of who is the Captain. You learn to perform both roles fluently.
• Communication: Clear, standardised, unambiguous communication — including knowing when to stay silent during critical "sterile cockpit" phases below 10,000 feet.
• The authority gradient: Learning to speak up as a First Officer, and to lead as a Captain, so that neither an over-steep nor a too-flat command relationship becomes a safety risk.
• Threat and Error Management (TEM): Recognising and trapping small errors before they align into something dangerous — the well-known "Swiss cheese" model of accident prevention.
• Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs): Working to shared procedures and checklists so that a Captain and First Officer who have never met before can operate together with precision from the first flight.

This standardisation is what allows global airline operations to work at all. It means two pilots who meet for the first time in the crew room can fly a complex aircraft together as safely as a long-established team.

MCC and JOC — the classic combination

For pilots moving into jets, MCC is often paired with a Jet Orientation Course (JOC). While MCC teaches you the crew skills, the JOC develops the handling skills specific to operating a fast jet aircraft. Together they give you both halves of the picture: how to work as a crew, and how to fly the jet you will be working in. VDL Aviation offers both, on the same B737-800 simulator.

The industry is raising the bar: APS MCC

It is worth knowing where the industry is heading. In addition to the standard MCC, EASA introduced an enhanced version called APS MCC (Airline Pilot Standard MCC). It builds on the same MCC foundations but adds airline-style operating procedures, more simulator hours, jet handling, and a formal competency-based assessment at the end.

This matters because a growing number of European airlines — including well-known low-cost carriers such as Wizz Air, Ryanair and easyJet — now specify APS MCC as a preferred or required qualification for First Officer recruitment. Standard MCC remains the legal minimum and the essential foundation; APS MCC is increasingly what makes an application stand out. Whichever route you choose, it all begins with mastering multi-crew cooperation.