FOT meaning in aviation

Where this term is used / What it means in practice

FOT is commonly used in internal training schedules, crew development plans, and operator records to describe training tied to operational procedures rather than maintenance or engineering. Depending on the organisation, it may cover initial operator conversion, recurrent training, CRM, route or airport qualification, normal and abnormal procedures, or operational policy changes.

In practice, the term is useful shorthand but not a legal category. What matters for compliance is whether the operator has established and delivered the required training programme for the crew member and operation concerned. A company can call it FOT internally, but the approval basis still sits in the applicable Part-ORO, Part-CAT, or Part-FCL requirements.

What EASA says

The air operations framework requires operators to establish training and checking for flight crew and cabin crew that are appropriate to the operation. The rules are organised by function, such as operator conversion training, recurrent training, checking, CRM, and cabin crew training, rather than by the shorthand FOT.

Common confusion / Common mistakes

The main confusion is assuming FOT has one fixed regulatory meaning. It does not. Two operators may both use the label while covering different training content and different populations.

Another mistake is treating FOT as equivalent to type rating training or licence training. Under EASA, those activities sit in separate regulatory structures. Internal labels do not replace the need to identify the actual approved training and checking requirement.