Cost sharing on a PPL, LAPL or NPPL

You can share costs on any UK private licence: a Part-FCL PPL, a LAPL(A) or an NPPL(A). The cost-sharing rules are the same for everyone, but your licence and aircraft decide how many people you can take, from six on a PPL down to two in a microlight.

A private (non-commercial) licence is all you need (CAP 1590, para 23). What changes from licence to licence is the passenger and aircraft limits. Whichever limit is lower, the cost-sharing cap or your licence privileges, is the one that applies.

The rules every licence shares

Whatever you hold, a cost-sharing flight has to meet the conditions in NCO.GEN.102 (Part-21 aircraft) or article 13 of the Air Navigation Order 2016 (permit aircraft and microlights). In brief:

• no more than six people on board, including the pilot
• passengers contribute only to direct costs, and no more than an equal share
• the pilot pays all other costs, and (CAP 1590 guidance, para 27) at least an equal share of the direct costs
• the flight is operated by a private individual, with no paid pilot
• each passenger is told the flight doesn't meet commercial air transport (or, under the ANO, public transport) safety standards, and signs a declaration before the flight

For the money side, see can a private pilot charge passengers?. For the full set of conditions, see the regulations overview.

PPL (Part-FCL)

A Part-FCL PPL carries no cost-sharing restrictions of its own. You're limited by:

• the six-person cap in NCO.GEN.102(a) and ANO article 13
• the class and type ratings on your licence
• the aircraft's seats and weight and balance, which in a typical four-seat club tourer will bite well before six

The aircraft must be in scope: other-than-complex motor-powered aeroplanes and helicopters, or non-Part-21 non-complex motor-powered aircraft registered in the UK (CAP 1590, para 9). "Complex" aeroplanes include anything over 5,700 kg MTOM, with more than 19 passenger seats, needing two pilots, or with turbojets or more than one turboprop (para 33). Few PPL holders will come near that.

Microlights are non-Part-21 aircraft flown on a UK national licence rating; see below.

LAPL(A)

FCL.105.A(a) limits a LAPL(A) holder to single-engine piston aeroplanes (SEP) or touring motor gliders (TMG) of 2,000 kg MTOM or less, "carrying a maximum of 3 passengers, such that there are always a maximum of 4 persons on board".

So on a LAPL you can share costs with up to three passengers. That lower limit overrides the six-person cost-sharing cap.

The 10-hour rule has gone

Before 1 October 2025, FCL.105.A(b) required a LAPL(A) holder to complete 10 hours as pilot in command after the licence was issued before carrying passengers. That requirement was omitted by SI 2025/878 (reg 6(3)(a)(ii)) from 1 October 2025. A newly qualified LAPL holder can now carry passengers as soon as they meet the recency requirement.

NPPL(A)

The NPPL(A) covers the SSEA, SLMG/TMG and microlight class ratings. Its privileges allow non-commercial flight as pilot in command "provided that the total number of persons carried (including the pilot) does not exceed four, and the maximum certified take-off mass of the aeroplane does not exceed 2,000 kg" (ANO Schedule 8, Part 1, Chapter 3, NPPL(A) privileges para (1)(a)).

Passengers may be carried if the recent experience condition (or the recent experience exception) is met (para (1)(e)). The NPPL(A) may also be used for commercial operation where the "excepted flights condition" is met (para (1)(c)-(d)): a flight "of the type mentioned in article 6(4a)" of the Air Operations Regulation (Schedule 8, Part 1, Chapter 1, para 3(2)), which includes cost-shared flights under article 6(4a)(a).

Microlights

A microlight aeroplane is, by definition, "designed to carry not more than two persons" (ANO Schedule 1, para 4(2) and (3); a single-seat deregulated aeroplane under para 4(4) is also a microlight). So a cost-shared microlight flight is limited to the pilot plus one passenger, whatever licence you fly it on. Microlights are non-Part-21 aircraft, so ANO article 13 is the rule that applies.

NPPL(H)

If you held an NPPL(H) granted before 1 October 2025, it is now deemed to be a Light Aircraft Pilot's Licence (Helicopters) under ANO Schedule 8.

Comparison by licence

Remember that the aircraft can be more restrictive than the licence. A PPL holder in a two-seat trainer is a two-person flight, however generous the rules are.

Recency

CAP 1590, para 15: "To carry passengers, a pilot must have completed, in the relevant class or type rating, three take-offs, approaches and landings in the preceding 90 days". For a passenger flight at night, one of those must have been at night, unless you hold an instrument rating. The requirement comes from FCL.060(b) for Part-FCL licences and the ANO Schedule 8 "recent experience condition" for UK national licences.

If you've had a quiet few months, go and fly a few circuits on your own before booking passengers.

No minimum hours

There's no minimum experience requirement for cost sharing. During consultation some respondents asked for one, and the CAA's answer in CAP 2391 was: "These comments were not accepted and will not be reflected within the revised regulation." Nothing in NCO.GEN.102 or ANO article 13 sets a minimum.

Your hours still matter in two places, though. If you advertise a flight, NCO.GEN.102(i) requires the advert to state your licence type, your medical certificate or declaration, your total hours, and your hours on the advertised type in the three months before the advert was placed. See advertising cost-sharing flights. And the CAA's declaration template asks the pilot to confirm that their licence, rating and medical are current.

Split My Flight collects each passenger's signed declaration before the flight and keeps it on record with your flight details, which covers the paperwork side whatever licence you hold.

Insurance

CAP 1590 (para 14) puts the responsibility on the pilot to make sure the flight is insured for cost sharing with passengers. Check that your policy covers you, on your licence and in that aircraft, carrying passengers who share costs. Group and club policies vary, so read the wording rather than assuming. Passengers should check their own life, accident and health cover.

For more on the passenger limits, read the six-person limit, and for what changed for each licence on 1 October 2025, see what changed in October 2025.