The assessment covers education, work, life experience, personality traits and competencies. During the behavioural simulation, the applicant receives a role, a scenario and a goal, and handles the situation in a conversation with a colleague played by an actor or assessor. In the collaboration exercise, applicants work on an assignment with a staff member or other candidates to solve problems and find creative solutions. Dealing with others matters more than taking the lead. The findings go into a report with an integrated recommendation on suitability and potential to grow into an airline pilot.

According to the Aviation Medical Center (AMC), the pre-selection is the first phase of the KLM FA selection and takes place at the AMC location in Amsterdam. The KLM FA selection has four main phases: a pre-selection, followed by cognitive and sensorimotor testing (BCO/SMO), a psychological assessment (KCO) and the admissions board (COVA). There is also a Class 1 medical. According to an applicant in 2025, after you apply to KLM Flight Academy it first checks whether you meet the requirements. KLM FA then registers the candidate with the aeromedical centre for the pre-selection. You only reach the KCO if your results in the pre-selection, BCO and SMO meet the requirements. Before the KCO, the aeromedical centre asks you to submit documents such as a CV and a biography, which candidates call a life history and describe as a personal story about themselves and their background. The KCO consists of an interview with a psychologist from the aeromedical centre, personality testing, and individual and teamwork exercises, which include a behavioural simulation with a colleague played by an actor or assessor. You see the KCO report yourself first and then decide whether the aeromedical centre sends it to KLM Flight Academy. Candidates receive the core competency assessment report in advance so they can prepare for the COVA interview, which covers the selection results, personal background and motivation. The complete KLM Flight Academy selection takes about 3 to 6 months. Candidates reported in 2025 and 2026 waiting two to more than three weeks without an available date for the KCO.121618

After passing the SMO (phase 2) of the KLM Flight Academy selection, you can book the KCO (core competency assessment, phase 3), but time slots become available only in limited numbers. In the early years of the RLS, a predecessor of KLM Flight Academy, selection only took place during training, which led to a high drop-out rate. In the KLS selection (KLM Flight Academy, 2004), one candidate had the IQ test on Monday and the psychological assessment as early as Wednesday. A KLM pilot accepted for flight training in 2006 was first rejected in June 2005 because he did not hold an ATPL, but was invited to the psychological assessment as early as September that year. In the KLS selection in 2006, one candidate was told after about two weeks of waiting to report for the psychological assessment (PO1). A candidate who passed PO1 of the KLS selection in December 2006 took PO2 about four weeks later. According to candidates in 2007, exactly 6 weeks passed for one applicant between sending the KLS application and the call from the IAP to schedule PO1. For another candidate, after the selection fee was debited it took 3 to 4 weeks before the KLS sent a letter, and a few days later the IAP, which ran the psychological tests, called to make an appointment. For one KLS candidate, the IAP phoned three days after the letter, with phase 1 following at the end of that week and phase 2 exactly one week later. According to a candidate in 2008, after paying for the KLS selection you usually received a letter or call within two weeks for the first psychological assessment (PO1). How quickly this happened could depend on completing secondary school, and if it took too long, the advice was to get in touch. In the KLS selection in 2008, the air taxi game was a new component of PO2 that had not existed a year earlier.245678910

The EASA assessment for pilots covers general intellectual capacity, operational and professional competencies, social competencies, and personality, which includes emotional stability and resilience. In the personality test, airlines look for a combination of emotional stability, team orientation, accuracy, assertiveness and eagerness to learn. A difficult past, such as having been bullied, says little; what counts is how you dealt with problems and what you learned from them. The psychologist bases the judgement on measurable facts from the interview, assessment and personality testing. The requirements for the psychological assessment cover various aspects of mental and psychological fitness for pilots. Since 14 February 2021, EASA rule CAT.GEN.MPA.175 requires commercial air transport operators to ensure that flight crew have undergone a psychological assessment before commencing line flying. Under the related AMC, this assessment should have been taken within the 24 months before line flying, unless the operator can show that an older assessment is still adequate. For the internal assessment of pilots' psychological characteristics and suitability, support from a psychologist is desirable but not mandatory at small air operators. The initial EASA Class 1 medical includes an essential assessment of mental health to ensure psychological resilience for a long and safe career. Under MED.B.055 of EASA Part-MED, applicants with a diagnosis or documented history of certain psychiatric conditions, such as a mood, neurotic or personality disorder, must undergo a satisfactory psychiatric evaluation before they can be assessed as fit. If there is a history of significant mental health conditions or current treatment with psychotropic medication, a further psychological or psychiatric evaluation may be required for EASA medical certification. Even with a minor or mild mental health condition, it is possible to apply for a Class 2 medical certificate, in which case an aeromedical examiner will assess the case. In Belgium, since 1 July 2019, all Class 1 pilot candidates must take an additional psychological test at a specialised centre; the 2025 price list of Medex gives EUR 400 for this test.110111217

The life history sits next to the answers to the personality questionnaires. The psychologist asks questions about it to check whether the picture matches the rest of the results.

A practical approach is to go through life in broad outline by education, work and other experiences, picking a few moments per period that say something about the applicant. Describe what was done and what was learned, even if a situation did not go well. Explain repeated years and gap years instead of leaving them out. Include hobbies, sports, part-time jobs, board positions and aviation experience such as gliding. Important events, including less positive ones, belong in the document, but medical details do not. Ensure dates and facts match the CV. Check the spelling and have someone read the text critically. Applicants are advised not to use ready-made solutions or let someone else rewrite the text into an ideal profile.

Talk to people around you about how you come across. Reread the life history to anticipate where a psychologist might ask follow-up questions. Arrive rested and on time. Practise talking about yourself briefly and clearly, but do not work out answers down to the last detail. Questions in psychological profile tests are often vague, and answers can vary from day to day.14

Assertiveness and maturity are important points of attention, as one candidate found after being rejected at PO2 of the KLS selection in 2006. Candidates report that a lack of life experience is a common reason for rejection in phase 3 (KCO, core competency assessment) of the KLM Flight Academy selection, a point that has come up in pilot discussions since 2008. A pilot who was once rejected in the KLM Flight Academy selection, partly for insufficient stress resilience, acknowledges in hindsight that the verdict was accurate at the time, although he later became a professional pilot. Applicants are advised to take a rejection seriously, look at what is true and work on it. Reapplying depends on the course. If rejected, ask for a follow-up conversation, use the report to improve, and be honest about a previous rejection if another school asks.2615

To prepare for the psychological assessment, you should develop self-awareness, think about major life events and what you learned from them, and write down your strengths and weaknesses along with a concrete example. It is important to fill in the questionnaires as you are, rather than how you think a pilot ought to be, because airlines value honesty and self-reflection more than a polished story. Giving socially desirable answers in the personality tests of the KLM FA selection backfires, because the tests are designed to detect this. KLM Flight Academy explicitly asks candidates not to take selection training for the core competency assessment (KCO), because it can lead to unnatural or learned behaviour that hides your real personality. To prepare for the COVA at KLM Flight Academy, it is advisable to read the KCO report critically and, for each point of attention, choose a concrete example of how you are working on it. It is also important to reread your CV and life history, think about what questions an outsider would ask, and know exactly how the training is structured.1