Finnair Pilot Requirements 2026: Hours, License and Hiring Process

Finnair, Finland’s flag carrier, is based in Helsinki, and its careers pages, as search results showed them on 27 October 2026, describe two doors to its flight deck. Holders of a commercial pilot license can apply for Finnair’s further training: a First Officer course, simulator training and the type rating, in about two to three months. Every Finnair pilot must be fluent in both Finnish and English, and Finnair also asks for upper secondary school or a vocational qualification of at least three years, a minimum height of 163 cm, its own medical criteria, based on EASA’s, and a police security clearance; it publishes no hours minimum. The second door, its MPL program with Center Air Pilot Academy in Denmark, takes students to an MPL and an A320 type rating, and both its 2026 application windows had closed. At the last check, on 27 October 2026, we found no open vacancy for licensed pilots. Finnair flies A320-family jets, A330s and A350s; its regional partner Norra flies ATR 72s and Embraer 190s for it, and Finnair ordered 18 E195-E2s for Norra to fly on 23 March 2026.

Is Finnair hiring pilots now?

Unconfirmed at the last check on 27 October 2026 — First Officer seat: Unconfirmed; Captain seat: Not offered. Fluent Finnish and English, a commercial pilot license, upper secondary education and a minimum height of 163 cm; no vacancy for licensed pilots found, and both 2026 MPL application windows had closed

Requirements, as published

Reading the requirements line by line

Finnair’s careers pages could not be opened for this check, so the requirements below are as search results showed Finnair’s pilots page and its careers FAQ on 26 and 27 October 2026; the pages show no publication date there, and search results dated one of the FAQ pages to about four years ago, so confirm each point on the live page. The EASA rules cited were read in EASA’s own text, except where the Library is named.

• A commercial pilot license, not an hours figure. Finnair’s FAQ names a commercial pilot license and no minimum hours; after it, Finnair’s own further training makes you a First Officer. Job boards that relayed an Airbus First Officer campaign asked for an EASA ATPL or a frozen ATPL, which we did not find on Finnair’s pages, so check the vacancy. Under EASA’s rules a CPL holder may act as co-pilot in commercial air transport (as the Library sets it out), and the full ATPL comes later: it takes 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, and an MPL or a CPL with a multi-engine instrument rating and MCC instruction as its prerequisites (FCL.510.A).
• Finnish and English, both fluent. Finnair requires fluency in both languages of every pilot. That is the employer’s rule, above the license: EASA’s rules ask for a language proficiency endorsement in English or the language used for the flight’s radio communications (FCL.055, as the Library sets it out), not for Finnish.
• School, height and security. Upper secondary school, or a completed vocational upper secondary qualification of at least three years; a minimum height of 163 cm; and a brief security clearance by the police.
• The medical. Finnair assesses each applicant against its own medical criteria, based on EASA’s standards with additional Finnair restrictions, and every Finnair pilot’s medical fitness is renewed each year. Glasses are acceptable if your eyesight meets the standard with or without correction, but your color vision must be flawless.
• No age limit. Finnair’s FAQ says there is no age limit for becoming a Finnair pilot. EASA’s rules still stop a pilot acting in commercial air transport at 65, and from 60 allow it only in a multi-pilot crew (FCL.065, as the Library sets it out).
• A license from outside the EU. Traficom, Finland’s aviation authority, converts a third-country ATPL to a Finnish EASA ATPL without further training if at least one type rating on it is valid: you need the 1,500 hours above, a pass in the EASA ATPL theory examinations and in an ATPL skill test, a Class 1 EASA medical and a language proficiency endorsement; Traficom has the authority that issued your license verify it, and needs a Finnish personal identity code before it processes the application. A third-country CPL has no fixed route: an approved training organization compares your training with EASA’s, Traficom approves its report before the further training it sets, and you pass the EASA CPL or ATPL theory examinations and a CPL skill test, with a Class 1 medical and a language proficiency endorsement (Traficom’s page on converting a foreign license, updated 25 February 2026). Finnair’s pages, as we saw them, ask for no nationality or right to work beyond the languages and the security clearance, so ask Finnair before you apply from outside the EU.

Entry routes

• Licensed pilots: Finnair’s further training for holders of a commercial pilot license, a First Officer course and simulator training followed by the type rating, about two to three months; no open application found on 27 October 2026
• MPL program: about 22 months with Center Air Pilot Academy (Roskilde, Denmark) and Finnair’s A320 simulator in Vantaa, to an MPL and an A320 type rating; students pay EUR 60,000; both 2026 application windows (17 April–3 May, and 3–28 August jointly with the Finnish Aviation Academy) had closed (Finnair’s pages and the academy’s notice, as search results showed them)
• Direct entry Captain — not offered (none published)

The MPL program, and Finnair beside its peers

Finnair’s MPL program is its route for students without a license. Everything here is from Finnair’s MPL page and its FAQ as search results showed them on 26 and 27 October 2026, unless another source is named; the pages carry no date we could see.

• The course. About 22 months: the first 18 to 20 at Center Air’s training center in Roskilde, Denmark, with the ATPL theory and about half a year of basic and instrument flying, and the last part in the A320 simulator at Finnair’s training center in Vantaa. You graduate with an MPL and an A320 type rating.
• The job. Graduates have priority, for five years, when Finnair recruits co-pilots for the A320 family, and Finnair aims for the first of them to start flying around the summer of 2028, depending on its needs. It plans to train about 40 to 60 pilots a year through the program, against a need it puts at 80 to 100 pilots a year.
• The cost. EUR 60,000 for the student: EUR 37,500 in three installments during training and EUR 22,500 after Finnair employs you; accommodation in Denmark and Finland is extra.
• The selection. An application, aptitude tests and interviews, run by Selex Oy as one joint selection for the MPL program and the Finnish Aviation Academy, with the same entry requirements for both except the medical.
• The dates. 2026 had two application windows: 17 April to 3 May on Finnair’s MPL page, and 3 to 28 August for the joint application with the Finnish Aviation Academy, in the academy’s notice and a Finnair LinkedIn post, for courses starting in 2027 and 2028; the pilots page said the application period had closed. Both windows are as search results showed them, so watch the MPL page for the next intake.
• What an MPL allows. An MPL is a license for multi-pilot airplanes, and under EASA’s rules an ATPL whose holder previously held only an MPL stays restricted to multi-pilot operations until the holder meets the single-pilot requirements of FCL.405.A(b)(2) and (c) (FCL.505.A).

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

Finnair’s language rule is its own: every pilot must be fluent in Finnish as well as English. At their own last checks, Air France published no total-hours minimum for its direct-entry First Officers, only 70 hours in command for a pilot without a CS-25 rating, but took only EEA or Swiss nationals, KLM asked for a multi-pilot type rating and English at Level 6, Norwegian asked a pilot without a 737 rating for 1,500 hours, and easyJet was recruiting Captains while its First Officer seat was not recruiting. Read each row with its date.

Selection process

1. Application (for the MPL program, a joint application with the Finnish Aviation Academy)
2. Aptitude testing (Selex Oy’s selection service)
3. Interviews

Bases and fleet

Bases: Helsinki

Fleet: A320 family · A330-300 · A350-900 · Embraer E190 (Norra) · ATR 72 (Norra) · Embraer E195-E2 (on order for Norra, from 2027)

The fleet, and the Embraer order

Finnair’s fleet at the end of 2025 was 79 aircraft (its fleet renewal presentation of 23 March 2026): 18 Airbus A350s and eight A330s among the wide-bodies, 15 A319s and A320s and 14 A321s among the narrow-bodies, and 12 ATR 72s and 12 Embraer 190s flown by Norra, Nordic Regional Airlines, which operates Finnair’s regional traffic and works only as a capacity provider for Finnair (ch-aviation). On 23 March 2026 Finnair announced the renewal of its narrow-body fleet: firm orders for 18 Embraer E195-E2s, with 16 options and 12 purchase rights, deliveries from the third quarter of 2027, to be flown by Norra, and plans to buy up to 12 used A320 and A321ceos to replace its oldest A319s and A320s (Finnair’s stock exchange release). Whether Norra’s pilots have a route to Finnair is among the points we could not confirm. For the Airbuses, the A320 bank covers the A319, A320 and A321; for Norra’s types, the E-Jet bank covers the E-Jet family, the E190 among it, and the ATR 72 bank the ATR.

How to prepare

Finnair’s own jets are Airbuses, so the A320 bank is the type preparation for the A319, A320 and A321, the family the MPL program’s A320 type rating is for; there is no A330 or A350 bank on v1prep, and the Library’s A320 flight deck design philosophy explains the Airbus flight deck logic. Finnair publishes no selection stages for licensed pilots in what we could read. For its MPL program and the Finnish Aviation Academy, one joint selection run by Selex Oy goes from the application to aptitude tests and interviews, and job boards describe the licensed pilots’ selection as an ATPL technical test, cut-e aptitude and reasoning tests, math and English tests, a group exercise, an HR interview and a simulator assessment, which we could not confirm. Prepare for all of them: the ATPL theory banks for a technical test, timed reasoning practice for the aptitude tests, and the CRM interview set and the A320 interview set for the interviews. The language rule is not one to prepare in a few weeks: Finnair requires every pilot to be fluent in Finnish as well as English, so if you do not already speak Finnish fluently, you do not meet it. If you look at Norra, which flies Finnair’s regional aircraft, the ATR 72 bank and the E-Jet bank cover its types. Do the paperwork first: your upper secondary or vocational certificate, the documents for the police security clearance, and a medical that meets Finnair’s criteria, which add Finnair’s own restrictions to EASA’s standards and ask for flawless color vision; Finnair renews every pilot’s medical approval each year.

Finnair has no interview guide on v1prep yet, so for the selection read the complete airline pilot interview guide and the Library’s pilot aptitude tests and airline simulator assessment. On the licenses, the Library’s commercial and airline transport pilot licenses sets out the CPL, the MPL and the frozen ATPL, and its multi-crew cooperation courses what MCC adds. For the European route as a whole, read how to become an airline pilot in Europe; the other Nordic airlines are on SAS pilot requirements and Norwegian pilot requirements, and the region’s on our page of pilot jobs in Europe. Check Finnair’s entry on the jobs board for the latest status.

What we could not confirm

• Researched on 26 and 27 October 2026 from search-engine results of the airline’s own careers pages, its stock exchange releases and Traficom’s pages — not from a direct read of the portal. Confirm the vacancy is still open before you apply.
• Whether Finnair is taking applications from licensed pilots now, and how often it opens them
• Whether licensed pilots need an EASA ATPL or frozen ATPL, as job boards relayed, or only the commercial pilot license Finnair’s FAQ names, and with how many hours
• The selection stages for licensed pilots: job boards list an ATPL technical test, cut-e (Aon) aptitude and reasoning tests, math and English tests, a group exercise, an HR interview and a simulator assessment, which we did not find on Finnair’s pages
• The 2026 MPL application windows, seen only in search results (17 April to 3 May on Finnair’s MPL page; 3 to 28 August in the joint application with the Finnish Aviation Academy), and when the next one opens
• Whether Finnair asks for a nationality or an EU/EEA right to work: the pages we saw ask only for the languages and a police security clearance
• Whether licensed pilots pay for, or are bonded for, Finnair’s further training and type rating
• Whether Norra, which flies Finnair’s ATR 72s and Embraer 190s, is a route into Finnair

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 Finnair hiring pilots? We found no open Finnair vacancy for licensed pilots at the last check, on 27 October 2026, in English or Finnish searches, so the First Officer seat is unconfirmed. Finnair’s MPL program for students took 2026 applications from 17 April to 3 May on its MPL page, and from 3 to 28 August in a joint application with the Finnish Aviation Academy, both as search results showed them, and both windows had closed. Check Finnair’s pilots page before you apply.

What do you need to become a Finnair pilot? On Finnair’s careers pages, as search results showed them on 27 October 2026: a commercial pilot license, fluent Finnish and English, upper secondary school or a vocational upper secondary qualification of at least three years, a minimum height of 163 cm, Finnair’s own medical criteria, based on EASA’s with additional restrictions, and a brief police security clearance. Finnair publishes no hours minimum, and its further training, a First Officer course, simulator training and the type rating, takes about two to three months.

Do you need to speak Finnish to fly for Finnair? Yes. Finnair requires every pilot to be fluent in both Finnish and English, on its own careers pages as search results showed them on 27 October 2026. That is Finnair’s rule, not the license’s: EASA’s rules ask for a language proficiency endorsement in English or the language used for the flight’s radio communications.

How much does the Finnair MPL program cost? EUR 60,000 for the student, on Finnair’s MPL page as search results showed it on 27 October 2026: EUR 37,500 in three installments during training and EUR 22,500 after Finnair employs you, with accommodation in Denmark and Finland extra. The course takes about 22 months, mostly at Center Air in Roskilde, Denmark, and ends with an MPL and an A320 type rating; graduates have priority for five years when Finnair recruits A320-family co-pilots.

Does Finnair pay for the type rating? Finnair trains it: for a holder of a commercial pilot license, its further training is a First Officer course and simulator training followed by the type rating, about two to three months, on its careers pages as search results showed them on 27 October 2026. Whether licensed pilots pay for it or sign a bond is not in what we could read; MPL students pay EUR 60,000 for a course that ends with the A320 type rating.