From the Handelsblatt archive: Pilots earn nowhere as well as with the core brand Lufthansa Airlines. Nevertheless, they demand higher company contributions for their pension. Is that justified? The paycheck shows the details.
Pilots for the Lufthansa core brand are among the best paid in the entire group. Photo: dpa
Frankfurt. There is still a tension between the Lufthansa pilots and their employer. The pilots' representative Association Cockpit (VC) contacted the Cologne district court at the end of June. The company management had terminated an agreement under which pilots were given time off and credited for work in the VC committees. The pilots' representation speaks of one of the "sharpest attacks" and wants to clarify the matter in court.
The management reacted to a violent wave of strikes with the termination. According to Lufthansa, labor disputes lasting several days in the first quarter and in April caused costs of around 200 million euros. The collective bargaining conflict is about contributions to pension provision. The VC demands more, the management counters with the weak economic condition of the premium brand Lufthansa. Flight operations have been being restructured for months in order to sustainably get out of the loss zone.
“Just because the VC is demanding more employer benefits, we cannot further deteriorate the future viability of the entire company,” said Human Resources Director Michael Niggemann in an interview published within the company. Retirement provision is already at the absolute top, even compared to its European competitors.
This applies overall to the remuneration of the approximately 4,500 pilots at Lufthansa Airlines and Lufthansa Cargo. In this article you will find out how much pilot training costs and how much Lufthansa and Eurowings will pay aircraft captains in detail in 2026.
Becoming a pilot: How much does the training cost?
It costs around 120,000 euros to train a pilot at the European Flight Academy (EFA). The good news: The management of Europe's largest airline group has changed the financing conditions for interested parties. While they previously had to finance a large part themselves - often through their parents - applicants now “only” have to bring 10,000 euros in equity.
The rest of the sum is pre-financed. After the end of the training, young professionals must gradually repay this money as soon as their gross annual income is at least 30,000 euros. The higher the income, the higher the repayment rate.
How much is the pilot salary at Lufthansa and Eurowings?
A captain of the Lufthansa core brand can earn a maximum of 281,300 euros per year - without allowances.
According to the company, a first officer joins the Lufthansa core brand with a fixed salary of 88,600 euros per year. As a captain with the highest seniority level - it expresses the number of years of active service - you can even earn up to 281,300 euros. This makes this professional group one of the top earners – within the group itself, but also beyond Lufthansa.
» Read also: These are Germany's best-paid professions
There are also allowances and things such as profit sharing if the airline is profitable. According to data from the Pilotjobnetworks portal, after 30 years, a captain's salary with all allowances can in some cases exceed the threshold of 300,000 euros per year.
For comparison: According to the company, Eurowings pilots start as first officers with around 70,200 euros, almost 20,000 euros less than at Lufthansa. At higher career levels, the salary difference to the crane airline captains continues to grow.
A captain at Eurowings can earn a maximum of just under 202,300 euros in fixed salary - around 80,000 euros less than at the parent company. The same applies here: allowances are not taken into account. Eurowings pilots can, for example, increase their salary with money for additional flight hours or allowances for instructors, for example.
What influences the pilot salary at Eurowings and Lufthansa?
In general, pilot salaries depend on several factors. There's the plane they fly. And there is the number of years of employment – the so-called seniority mentioned above. The number of block hours flown per month sometimes also plays a role. This refers to the time between removing the brake shoe before taxiing at the departure airport and putting this shoe on at the destination.
All of these factors make it fundamentally difficult to compare salaries between Lufthansa and Eurowings. The parent company's salary information also includes long-haul pilots, who generally earn better than their colleagues on short-haul flights. Eurowings, on the other hand, only flies short and medium-haul flights.
Eurowings pilots sometimes earn significantly less than their colleagues from the premium brand Lufthansa. Photo: Holger Hollemann/dpa
In addition, some numbers in the salary tables are rather theoretical. On paper, a first officer with 30 years of service at Lufthansa can earn 234,447 euros more than a captain with fewer years of service. In fact, a first officer does not reach this length of service; he has long since moved from the right to the left pilot's seat - that of the captain.
There is a two-class society for the Lufthansa Group pilots. Gerald Wissel, Airborne Consulting
Nevertheless, Gerald Wissel from the aviation consultancy Airborne Consulting in Hamburg believes: “There is a two-tier society among the Lufthansa Group pilots.” It starts with money and ends with extra allowances.
Lufthansa pilots still have many special rights
For a time, a minimum fleet size was set for the pilots of the Lufthansa core brand - in the so-called perspective agreement. It was 325 jets. The regulation was important for the pilots because it guaranteed co-pilots to fly a lot on the way to becoming captain and could therefore take salary increases into account.
However, during the pandemic, management unilaterally terminated this agreement. Shortly before Christmas, the VC therefore declared that it wanted to have the proceedings clarified in court in arbitration proceedings. The pilot representation sees a violation of the rules on the minimum fleet size at Lufthansa and Lufthansa Cargo.
The core brand's short-haul salaries have long been too high for Lufthansa management. At the same time, however, it needs these flights because they are feeders to Frankfurt and Munich in order to fill the long-haul aircraft there.
That's why these flights are now increasingly being taken over by the new subsidiary Lufthansa City Airlines. The new airline is to receive 40 Airbus A220-300s, and an option for a further 20 jets has been signed. The flying staff there are paid differently. At the same time, management briefly closed Cityline in April, which previously took passengers to Frankfurt and Munich. In view of the high costs and outdated collective agreements, the management no longer saw a future for flight operations.
Lufthansa expert: “Get out of the tariff confusion”
Experts like Wissel admit that it is becoming increasingly difficult for pilots to influence their operational plan, the so-called request. “On the other hand, more and more administrative tasks are being added to the actual flying, which is where some of the current frustration comes from,” says Wissel.
Nevertheless, the pilots of the core brand still have many special rights, which always caused envy within the group. For Wissel it is therefore clear: “Lufthansa has to get out of this tariff confusion.”
