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

Brussels Airlines, the Lufthansa Group airline based in Brussels, trains its own First Officers from zero. Its MPL Cadet Program, run with Skywings Flight Training at Antwerp, needs no flying experience and takes 19 months to a multi-crew pilot license and an A320 type rating. At the last check, on 28 October 2026, job boards’ copies of its listing for the 2027 intake gave an application deadline of 1 November 2026, as search results showed them; we could not open the airline’s own job site to confirm it. The program page, in the same results, asks for an EU passport, fluent English and French or Dutch, and gives the cost of the partly sponsored course as EUR 112,500 including VAT; the airline’s listing for the 2025 intake gave EUR 99,500. We found no current vacancy for experienced pilots: a job board’s undated copy of an A320-family First Officer vacancy, marked closed, asked for an EASA frozen ATPL and fluent Dutch or French, with no hours figure. The fleet is all Airbus: A320-family jets and A330-300s.

Is Brussels Airlines hiring pilots now?

Unconfirmed at the last check on 28 October 2026 — First Officer seat: Unconfirmed; Captain seat: Not offered. MPL Cadet Program with Skywings (€112,500 partly sponsored, 19 months, EU passport, French or Dutch; the 2027 intake taking applications until 1 November 2026 on job boards’ copies of its listing); no direct-entry vacancy found at the last check

Requirements, as published

Reading the requirements line by line

Brussels Airlines’ own pages could not be opened for this check, so the requirements below are its MPL Cadet Program page and job boards’ copies of its listings as search results showed them on 28 October 2026, and a job board’s copy of a direct-entry vacancy, undated and marked closed. Its press releases, the Lufthansa Group flight school’s airline table, the Belgian authority’s pilot pages and EASA’s rule were read in full. Check each point on the live page.

• No flying, but an EU passport. The cadet program needs no flying experience or knowledge of aviation, but asks for the passport of an EU member state, a secondary school diploma and a certificate of good conduct.
• English, and French or Dutch. Cadets need fluent English and French and/or Dutch. The closed direct-entry copy asked for ICAO English Level 4 and fluency in Dutch or French, with a CEFR B2 certificate if neither is your first language. The Lufthansa Group flight school’s airline table asks no German of Brussels Airlines pilots, only English at ICAO Level 4 or above and fluent French or Dutch.
• The cost. The program page gives the cost of the partly sponsored course as EUR 112,500 including VAT, paid in three installments, and job boards’ copies of the 2027 intake’s listing give the same figure; Brussels Airlines’ listing for the 2025 intake gave EUR 99,500. The program page also still says that the trainee finances “the 99.500 Euros” while Brussels Airlines covers some costs, such as touch-and-go training, so ask which figure you would pay. It mentions “pilot loans” from Belfius. Not included: landing fees, the Antwerp airport security badge and the initial Class 1 medical, given as EUR 949.
• The license. The course ends with an EASA MPL and the A320 type rating (AFM). The MPL gives the privileges of a co-pilot in an airplane that must be flown with one, and it leads to the ATPL once you have 1,500 hours of flight time in airplanes, 500 of them in multi-pilot operations (FCL.510.A); flying single-pilot airplanes commercially needs further requirements (as the Library sets it out).
• Direct entry: a frozen ATPL, no hours figure. The closed copy of an A320-family First Officer vacancy asked for an EASA frozen ATPL with an instrument rating, multi-engine and MCC training and UPRT, a Class 1 medical and a certificate of good conduct, gave no hours minimum, and said the type rating was not required, with training provided. It is the only description of the direct-entry terms we found, so treat it as a guide to the next vacancy, not a promise.
• A license from outside the EU. The pilot pages of Belgium’s Federal Public Service Mobility and Transport, read on 28 October 2026, have sections on the ATPL, the MPL, language proficiency, license transfers and the conversion of FAA certificates; we did not read those sections, so ask the authority, and Brussels Airlines, before you count on a converted license.

Entry routes

• MPL Cadet Program with Skywings Flight Training, Antwerp — no prior flying experience, 19 months to A320 First Officer, 20 to 30 pilots a year (2024); 2027 intake: applications open until 1 November 2026 on job boards’ copies of its listing, as search results showed them on 28 October 2026
• Direct entry First Officer — experienced EASA pilots when vacancies open; none found at the last check
• Direct entry Captain — not offered

Brussels Airlines beside its neighbors and peers

Brussels Airlines 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. The language rule has its match next door: at their own last checks, Air France asked its direct-entry First Officers for fluent French, with Level 6 in French for a pilot whose first language it is not, and the nationality of an EEA state or Switzerland (21 October 2026), and KLM asked for Dutch, at CEFR B2 before selection on its Dutch-language vacancy, a passport of an EU state and a multi-pilot type rating already held (13 October 2026). easyJet was recruiting Captains while its First Officer seat was not recruiting (12 October 2026), and Norwegian asked a pilot without a 737 rating for 1,500 hours (21 September 2026). For a beginner, KLM’s Flight Academy and Air France’s cadet program are the other airline-backed routes from zero in the neighboring countries; both are on our page of cadet pilot programs.

Selection process

1. MPL Cadet Program: an application, then a three-day screening for shortlisted candidates (AFM)
2. Interviews and psychometric testing
3. A math and physics test and an English test
4. A personality and psychological screening
5. AFM also lists a simulator stage and an HR interview
6. An EASA Class 1 medical before the training starts

Inside the MPL Cadet Program

The program is Brussels Airlines’ own route to the A320’s right-hand seat, run with Skywings Flight Training. In its release of 12 April 2024, Brussels Airlines said that it recruits its cadets before their training begins, that graduates join as First Officers on its A319 and A320 fleet, and that it expected 20 to 30 pilots a year through the partnership, the first flying for it from 2026; it added that pilots from other flight schools were not excluded. AFM, in an article whose date search results did not show, reported that applications had opened for the 2026 intake, the program’s third; that the training takes place mainly at Antwerp Airport, with phases of fair-weather flying in Spain; and that shortlisted candidates go through three days of screening with aptitude, language, psychological, math and physics and simulator assessments and an HR interview. The fourth intake, “Prom 4 - 2027”, was on job boards on 28 October 2026 with an application deadline of 1 November 2026 and the same EUR 112,500, as search results showed them; if that date has passed when you read this, watch the program page for the next window.

Bases and fleet

Bases: Brussels

Fleet: A320 family / A320neo · A330-300

How to prepare

For the MPL Cadet Program, the selection is the hurdle, not your flying: the program page, as search results showed it on 28 October 2026, lists interviews, psychometric testing, a math and physics test, an English test and a personality and psychological screening, and AFM describes three days of screening that also include a simulator stage. Practice timed reasoning for the psychometric tests (the Library’s pilot aptitude tests explains what they measure), revise school math and physics, and try v1prep’s ATPL theory banks, whose principles of flight, mass and balance and navigation subjects rest on the same math and physics. Your English must be fluent, and your French or Dutch too. Do the paperwork early: an EU passport, a secondary school diploma, a certificate of good conduct and an EASA Class 1 medical, whose initial examination the program’s fee does not include. For the direct-entry seat, when one opens, the type is the A320: the A320 bank below is your type preparation, with the A320 interview set and the CRM interview set for the interviews; there is no A330 bank on v1prep. The closed copy of the vacancy asked a pilot who has never held a type rating for advanced UPRT under FCL.745.A, the course Part-FCL requires before a first multi-pilot type rating (as the Library’s upset prevention and recovery sets it out), and a CEFR B2 certificate in Dutch or French if neither is your first language.

Brussels Airlines has no interview guide on v1prep yet, so for the selection read the complete airline pilot interview guide and the Library’s competency-based pilot interviews and airline simulator assessment. On the license, the Library’s commercial and airline transport pilot licenses explains what an MPL allows and how it leads to the ATPL. The neighboring flag carriers are on KLM pilot requirements and Air France pilot requirements, Brussels Airlines’ Lufthansa Group sisters on Austrian Airlines and Lufthansa pilot requirements, and every airline-backed route from zero on cadet pilot programs. Check Brussels Airlines’ entry on the jobs board for the latest status.

What we could not confirm

• Researched on 28 October 2026 from search-engine results of the airline’s own careers pages, job postings and industry job boards — not from a direct read of the portal. Confirm the vacancy is still open before you apply.
• Whether the 2027 intake’s deadline of 1 November 2026, seen on job boards’ copies of its listing, is the one on Brussels Airlines’ own job site, and the dates of later intakes
• Which cost applies: the program page gives EUR 112,500 including VAT for the partly sponsored course but also says the trainee finances EUR 99,500, the price on the 2025 intake’s listing
• Whether Brussels Airlines is recruiting experienced pilots now, and the terms of a current vacancy
• Direct-entry hours minimums
• Whether a cadet signs a bond or a contract with Brussels Airlines before the training

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 Brussels Airlines hiring pilots? Through its cadet program, on what we could find. At the last check, on 28 October 2026, job boards’ copies of Brussels Airlines’ listing for the 2027 intake of its MPL Cadet Program gave an application deadline of 1 November 2026, as search results showed them; we could not open the airline’s own job site to confirm it. We found no current vacancy for experienced pilots: a job board’s undated copy of an A320-family First Officer vacancy is marked closed. Check Brussels Airlines’ jobs pages before you apply.

How much does the Brussels Airlines MPL Cadet Program cost? EUR 112,500 including VAT for the partly sponsored course, paid in three installments, on the program page as search results showed it on 28 October 2026 and on job boards’ copies of the 2027 intake’s listing. The 2025 intake’s listing gave EUR 99,500, and the program page still says that the trainee finances EUR 99,500 while Brussels Airlines covers some costs, such as touch-and-go training, so ask which figure applies. Landing fees, the Antwerp airport security badge and the initial Class 1 medical, given as EUR 949, are not included.

Do you need to speak French or Dutch to fly for Brussels Airlines? Yes, on what we could read: the MPL Cadet Program asks for fluent English and French and/or Dutch, and a job board’s closed copy of a direct-entry First Officer vacancy asked for fluency in Dutch or French, with a CEFR B2 certificate if neither is your first language, and ICAO English Level 4. German is not required, by the Lufthansa Group flight school’s airline table, read on 28 October 2026.

Do you need flying experience for the Brussels Airlines cadet program? No. The MPL Cadet Program needs no flying experience or knowledge of aviation. It asks for an EU passport, fluent English, French and/or Dutch, an EASA Class 1 medical, a certificate of good conduct and a secondary school diploma, and takes 19 months with Skywings Flight Training at Antwerp to an MPL and an A320 type rating, after a selection of interviews, psychometric testing, a math and physics test, an English test and a personality and psychological screening.

How many hours do you need to join Brussels Airlines as a First Officer? Brussels Airlines publishes no hours figure in what we could read. The only copy of a direct-entry First Officer vacancy we found, on a job board, undated and marked closed, asked for an EASA frozen ATPL with an instrument rating, multi-engine and MCC training and UPRT, gave no hours minimum and did not require the A320 type rating, which it said was trained. Cadets need no flying hours at all.