At my flight school and the airline associated with it. You can have no more than three failed check rides to be hired on. These check rides failures have to be PPL-CMEL to count. So CFI, CFII, and MEII failures aren't counted towards the three.

In the 2026 aviation industry, having two checkride failures is a hurdle, but it is certainly not a career-ender. Many successful pilots at major airlines have one or two failures on their record from their early training days (such as Private Pilot or Instrument ratings). The "danger zone" for employability typically begins after three or four failures, or if you have multiple failures on the same test, which suggests a lack of learning. In 2026 interviews, the "Check Airmen" at airlines are more interested in how you handled the failure than the failure itself. Taking full ownership, explaining what you learned, and demonstrating a clean record since the incident is the key to passing. Airlines look for a "trend" of poor performance; if your two failures were five years ago and you have been a "gold seal" pilot since, you are still a strong candidate. However, failing a "Type Rating" or a "Part 121" training event at an airline is viewed much more critically than a failure during your initial flight school days.