Austrian Airlines Pilot Requirements 2026: Hours, License and Hiring Process

Austrian Airlines, the Lufthansa Group airline based in Vienna, names two routes for beginners on its careers page, as search results showed it on 28 October 2026. The first is ab-initio training at the Group’s European Flight Academy (EFA), where Future Pilots Austrian supports about 25 places a year; EFA’s page for it asks for no license but for an unrestricted EU passport, German at B2 and a general university entrance qualification, with a DLR aptitude certificate you arrange yourself, and the training itself is self-financed. The second is beginner+, subsidized training places at Aviation Academy Austria with a pre-contract with Austrian. At the last check, on 28 October 2026, we found no Austrian vacancy for licensed pilots: a job board’s ready-entry First Officer listing is undated and marked closed, so the First Officer seat is unconfirmed. From Vienna, Austrian flies A320-family jets, Embraer E195s, which are all to leave the fleet by the end of 2028, and Boeing 767s, 777s and 787-9s (Journal de l’Aviation, December 2025).

Is Austrian Airlines hiring pilots now?

Unconfirmed at the last check on 28 October 2026 — First Officer seat: Unconfirmed; Captain seat: Not offered. No vacancy for licensed pilots found; two routes from zero: Future Pilots Austrian at the European Flight Academy (unrestricted EU passport, German B2) and beginner+ at Aviation Academy Austria

Requirements, as published

Reading the requirements line by line

Austrian’s own careers page could not be opened for this check, so what it says is as search results showed it on 28 October 2026. The European Flight Academy’s page for Future Pilots Austrian and the Lufthansa Group flight school’s table of its airlines’ requirements were read in full in copies downloaded on 28 October 2026, EFA’s FAQ and costs page in copies downloaded on 24 October 2026, and EASA’s rule in EASA’s own text. None of these pages shows a date that we could see.

• An unrestricted EU passport. Future Pilots Austrian asks for an EU passport without restrictions. That is the program’s rule; Austrian publishes no current rule for licensed pilots, because we found no vacancy for them.
• German at B2, written and spoken. The program asks for very good German at B2. The Lufthansa Group flight school’s table of its airlines’ requirements also gives Austrian German at B2 or above, with English at B2 or ICAO Level 4, where Lufthansa asks for German at C1 if it is not your first language. EFA’s FAQ warns that some Group airlines make a language combination, such as German and English, a condition of employment, so a graduate without German cannot count on a seat at Austrian.
• School, the DLR test and your earlier results. A general university entrance qualification, a DLR aptitude certificate that you arrange yourself, and no negative result in an earlier PIT or FQ test or in the Lufthansa Group assessment.
• No license and no hours to apply, but you pay for the training. Future Pilots Austrian asks for neither a license nor flying hours, and EFA’s page says the training is self-financed, with Austrian taking the risk of a medical or performance-related end to it; beginner+ is for beginners too, but we could not read its terms. EFA’s graduates leave with a “frozen” ATPL, a CPL with an instrument rating (its FAQ), and the full ATPL follows at 1,500 hours of flight time in airplanes, 500 of them in multi-pilot operations, with 200 hours cross-country, 75 of instrument time and 100 at night (FCL.510.A).
• After the course, an interview and a vacancy. EFA’s page for the program gives its graduates a preferred application at Austrian with no further selection steps, but a positive hiring interview and an open vacancy are still needed. EFA’s FAQ says the same of every Group airline that needs pilots: its graduates have priority over external applicants and skip the ready-entry assessment, and the airline holds the interview that the law requires before an employment contract.
• The medical. EFA, as a rule, accepts only a Class 1 medical certificate without limitations and reviews any limitation, such as one for diopters, case by case (its FAQ); for Future Pilots Austrian, the Class 1 and a company medical are done at Austrian in Vienna. The Group flight school’s table gives Austrian a minimum height of 165 cm.
• A license from outside the EU. Austro Control, Austria’s aviation authority, has a form for converting a third-country ATPL(A) into an EASA one (version of 22 March 2023), which asks for a skill test, a Class 1 medical, your foreign license and medical, a verification letter and your logbooks, and a declaration that you have not applied for a conversion in another EASA state; its aeromedical FAQ asks a pilot whose medical another authority issued to have the aeromedical file transferred to Austria before applying for a license. With no vacancy for licensed pilots, we could not see whether Austrian would take such a pilot.

Entry routes

• Future Pilots Austrian — ab-initio ATPL training at the European Flight Academy, about 25 places a year supported by Austrian (unrestricted EU passport, German B2)
• beginner+ — subsidized training places at Aviation Academy Austria, with a pre-contract with Austrian
• Lufthansa Group program at the European Flight Academy — graduates may apply to any Group airline, Austrian among them
• Direct entry First Officer — no current vacancy found (a job board’s ready-entry and non-rated listings are undated, the first marked closed)
• Direct entry Captain — not offered in what we could read: Austrian describes the career as running from First Officer to Captain

Austrian beside its European peers and the Lufthansa Group

Austrian beside the European airlines it is compared with on our jobs board, as recorded at each airline’s last check:

Read each row with its date. At their own last checks, Air France was recruiting direct-entry First Officers with no total-hours minimum, but asked for fluent French and the nationality of an EEA state or Switzerland (21 October 2026); KLM was recruiting pilots who already held a multi-pilot type rating, with English at Level 6 and Dutch (13 October 2026); easyJet was recruiting Captains while its First Officer seat was not recruiting (12 October 2026); and Norwegian, whose First Officer vacancies closed on 31 August 2026, asked a pilot without a 737 rating for 1,500 hours (21 September 2026). Within the Lufthansa Group, the flight school’s airline table, read on 28 October 2026, asks for German at C1 of Lufthansa and SWISS pilots whose first language it is not (SWISS’s own direct-entry vacancy asks for B2), at B2 or above of Austrian and Edelweiss pilots and of those of Eurowings GmbH, and no German of Brussels Airlines pilots, who need French or Dutch instead.

Selection process

1. Future Pilots Austrian: a DLR aptitude certificate, arranged by the applicant (Hamburg, Milan or Zurich)
2. The application to the European Flight Academy and the Lufthansa Group assessment (Hamburg or Zurich)
3. A two-day simulator screening (PIT) in Vienna
4. A two-day final selection at DLR in Hamburg, with Austrian paying the flights to the PIT and the final selection
5. The company medical, with the EASA Class 1 medical, at Austrian in Vienna
6. After the European Flight Academy course: a hiring interview with Austrian, and a vacancy

Bases and fleet

Bases: Vienna

Fleet: A320 family · Embraer E195: all 17 to leave the fleet by the end of 2028, most of them to Air Dolomiti, replaced by A320neos, the first due in summer 2026 (Austrian Airlines, December 2025, as indexed on 22 October 2026) · B767 · B777 · B787-9 · Dash 8-400 (Q400): retired; the last passenger flight was on 31 May 2021, Vienna–Innsbruck–Vienna (Austrian Airlines’ newsroom, as indexed on 22 October 2026)

A fleet moving to two types

Austrian is reducing its fleet from five aircraft types to two, the A320 family and the Boeing 787-9 (Journal de l’Aviation, citing the airline, 15 December 2025). The first of its 17 Embraer E195s joined Air Dolomiti on 12 December 2025; 13 are to go to Air Dolomiti and four to be sold from early 2026, the last leaving by the end of 2028, while six new A320neo-family jets were to join from summer 2026 and the 767-300ERs and 777-200ERs are to retire as new 787s arrive. Its last Dash 8-400 passenger flight was on 31 May 2021 (Austrian’s newsroom and ch-aviation, as search results showed them on 28 October 2026), so the Dash 8 Q400 First Officer vacancies that some job boards still relay are not current. For a new joiner that makes the Airbus the type to prepare, with the 787-9 beside it.

Austrian also trains pilots from outside the airline world: two pilots of the Austrian Armed Forces, a jet pilot and a helicopter pilot, began A320 type rating training with Austrian on 28 September 2026, to fly its scheduled services once it ends in summer 2027; from 2028 they are to fly for the air force from November to April and for Austrian from May to October, in a trial that the air force will evaluate after the first season (aeroTELEGRAPH, 28 September 2026; wien.ORF.at, 29 September 2026; Vienna.at, 30 September 2026).

How to prepare

Future Pilots Austrian begins with selection, not flying, so start there. EFA’s page for the program sets the order: the DLR aptitude certificate first, arranged by you, then the application to EFA and the Lufthansa Group assessment in Hamburg or Zurich, then Austrian’s own two-day simulator screening (PIT) in Vienna and a two-day final selection at DLR in Hamburg, with the company medical and the EASA Class 1 medical in Vienna. The program takes no one with an earlier negative PIT, FQ or Group assessment result, so prepare before your first attempt: our Lufthansa pilot interview prep sets out the DLR test that the Group’s flight school asks for, and the Library’s pilot aptitude tests explains what such tests measure. German at B2 is a condition of the program, not something the course teaches, so if German is not your first language, reach that level before you apply. The training is self-financed, EFA’s page says: EFA’s basic costs for its course in Germany were EUR 130,000, in six installments, on its costs page (read on 24 October 2026), with financing offered through Brain Capital. The course includes the theory and the license examinations, and v1prep’s ATPL theory banks cover the subjects. For the hiring interview with Austrian that still follows the course, use the CRM interview set. For the type, Austrian is moving to two: the A320 bank below covers the A319, A320 and A321, ceo and neo, and the B787 bank the 787-9, while the E-Jet bank covers the E195 until it leaves; there is no 767 or 777 bank on v1prep. For beginner+ at Aviation Academy Austria, we could not read the terms or the selection, so ask the school and Austrian what the pre-contract binds you to before you sign.

Austrian has no interview guide on v1prep yet. For the DLR test and the Group’s selection, read our Lufthansa pilot interview prep, then the complete airline pilot interview guide for the hiring interview after the course, and the Library’s airline simulator assessment before the PIT screening. On the license, the Library’s commercial and airline transport pilot licenses explains the “frozen” ATPL that EFA graduates leave with, and its multi-crew cooperation courses what the MCC phase adds. The Group’s other airlines are on Lufthansa, SWISS, Eurowings and Brussels Airlines pilot requirements, every airline-backed route from zero on cadet pilot programs, and the European route as a whole on how to become an airline pilot in Europe. Check Austrian’s entry on the jobs board for the latest status.

What we could not confirm

• Researched on 28 October 2026 from search-engine results of Austrian’s careers page and job boards — not from a direct read of Austrian’s own portal; the European Flight Academy’s page for Future Pilots Austrian was read in full. Confirm the routes and vacancies before you apply.
• Whether Future Pilots Austrian or beginner+ has an intake open now, and its dates
• The terms of Austrian’s cover for a medical or performance-related end to Future Pilots Austrian training (its extended Take off Promise), and the terms of beginner+ and its pre-contract
• Whether Austrian is recruiting licensed First Officers at all: job boards in September 2026 relayed a reopened direct-entry selection with E195 First Officer vacancies and type-rating costs covered, which we could not find again
• Any hours minimum, type-rating policy or right-to-work rule for licensed pilots
• Who pays for the type rating of an EFA graduate who joins Austrian, and any bond

These points are not published clearly by the airline. Treat them as leads, not facts, and confirm them on the careers page: careers page.

Common questions

Is Austrian Airlines hiring pilots? Not licensed pilots, on what we could find: at the last check, on 28 October 2026, we found no Austrian vacancy for licensed pilots, and the First Officer listings that a job board still carries are undated, its ready-entry listing marked closed. For beginners, Austrian’s careers page names ab-initio training at the European Flight Academy, where Future Pilots Austrian supports about 25 places a year, and subsidized beginner+ places at Aviation Academy Austria, but we could not confirm whether either has an intake open now. Check Austrian’s careers page before you apply.

What do you need for Future Pilots Austrian? On the European Flight Academy’s page for the program, read on 28 October 2026: a DLR aptitude certificate you arrange yourself, a general university entrance qualification, an unrestricted EU passport, German at B2 written and spoken, and no negative result in an earlier PIT or FQ test or Lufthansa Group assessment. After the application to EFA come the Lufthansa Group assessment in Hamburg or Zurich, a two-day simulator screening (PIT) in Vienna, a two-day final selection at DLR in Hamburg and the company medical with the EASA Class 1 in Vienna. No license or flying hours are needed, but the training itself is self-financed.

Do you need to speak German to fly for Austrian? For Future Pilots Austrian, yes: German at B2, written and spoken, on the European Flight Academy’s page for the program, read on 28 October 2026. The Lufthansa Group flight school’s table of its airlines’ requirements, read the same day, also gives Austrian German at B2 or above, with English at B2 or ICAO Level 4. Austrian publishes no current rule for licensed pilots, because we found no vacancy for them.

How many flight hours do you need to fly for Austrian? None for Future Pilots Austrian, which takes applicants without a license; beginner+ is for beginners too, but we could not read its terms. Austrian publishes no hours minimum for licensed pilots in what we could read, because we found no vacancy for them at the last check, on 28 October 2026, and the listings a job board still carries are undated, one of them marked closed. EFA graduates leave with a frozen ATPL, and the full ATPL takes 1,500 hours of flight time under EASA’s rules (FCL.510.A).

What happens after the European Flight Academy? On EFA’s page for Future Pilots Austrian, read on 28 October 2026, its graduates have a preferred application at Austrian with no further selection steps, but still need a positive hiring interview and an open vacancy. EFA’s FAQ says its graduates may apply to every Lufthansa Group airline that needs pilots, with priority over external applicants and no ready-entry assessment, and, with the frozen ATPL, to many other European airlines too.