How to Become an Airline Pilot in Germany: License, Cost and Airlines

Germany licenses its airline pilots through the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (LBA), the federal aviation office in Braunschweig, under the EASA rules every member state shares: a Class 1 medical first, then an integrated course, the modular route or an airline’s MPL, to a commercial license with an instrument rating and the ATPL exams passed, the “frozen ATPL” German airlines hire on. The Lufthansa Group’s own school, the European Flight Academy, priced its German program at EUR 130,000, about 24 months without the type rating, when we read its pages on 24 October 2026, and its applicants begin with the German Aerospace Center’s (DLR) aptitude test, in Hamburg, Milan or Zurich. The route every EASA state shares, hour by hour, is on our Europe page; this one is about what is German: the LBA and its English-only exams, the aptitude tests, the schools and degrees, the airlines’ German-language rules, BAföG and the other funding, and the Bundeswehr.

1. The Class 1 medical, at a German center

The Class 1 medical is the certificate the commercial license, the MPL and the ATPL all need. In Germany the LBA is the competent authority for it under MED.A.001 of Part-MED, and it recognizes and oversees the aero-medical examiners (AMEs) and aero-medical centers (AeMCs) who examine you (§ 65c of the Aviation Act, the Luftverkehrsgesetz, as search results quoted it on 24 October 2026). Your first Class 1 can be done only at an AeMC certified for Class 1, and revalidations and renewals also by an AME with Class 1 privileges (EASA’s medical FAQ), which adds that the national authorities usually publish the list, so ask the LBA for its current list of centers before you book. The certificate lasts 12 months, and 6 from the age of 60, or from 40 in single-pilot commercial air transport with passengers (MED.A.045, step 1 of the Europe page).

When to take it depends on the route. The usual advice is to take it before you pay for any training. The European Flight Academy, which selects first and trains later, recommends booking the medical at an AeMC of your choice only once you have passed its Lufthansa Group assessment; as a rule it accepts only an unrestricted Class 1, reviews any limitation, on your eyesight for example, case by case, and adds a drug screening. Because its flying begins in the United States, you also need an FAA third-class medical, valid for 5 years, and it suggests asking for both in one appointment at the AeMC; its costs page adds that the medical must be issued in the country where the license is obtained (its FAQ and costs page, read on 24 October 2026).

EFA sets no height limit of its own, but warns that the airlines may set their own height and eyesight limits (its FAQ), and they do: the Lufthansa column of its training school’s airline-requirements table asks for a height of 165 to 198 cm, with exceptions at the aero-medical examiner’s decision (checked 12 October 2026); Condor wants a clear drug test at the aero-medical center and corrected vision within plus or minus 3 diopters (checked 17 October 2026). The medical certification article explains the classes and the examination.

2. Aptitude tests, schools, degrees and cadet routes

The routes are EASA’s. An integrated course at an approved training organization (ATO) has at least 750 hours of theory and 195 hours of flight training, of which up to 55 may be instrument time in a ground trainer, and you may start it with no experience or with a private license, half of whose hours, up to 40 (45 with a night rating), are credited; the modular route needs 150 hours of flight time, 50 of them in command of airplanes, before the commercial course’s flying starts (Part-FCL Appendix 3, paragraphs A and E). The MPL is run for an airline. Step 2 of the Europe page sets out each route. What is German is who signs what: the private licenses (LAPL, PPL) are issued by the aviation authority of your federal state, the Land where you live or trained, and the professional licenses by the LBA (§ 5 of the Aviation Personnel Ordinance, LuftPersV, and the federal service portal, as search results showed them on 24 October 2026), which also holds the theory exams for the CPL, MPL, ATPL and instrument ratings (its FAQ), so a modular student usually deals with both. In Germany the routes lead through these doors:

• The European Flight Academy (EFA), run by Lufthansa Aviation Training, is the Lufthansa Group’s only ab-initio school, by its own account. Its German program teaches the theory for about 12 months in Bremen before the first flight, then flies the single-engine phase at its partner, the United Aviate Academy near Phoenix, Arizona, and the multi-engine phase on Diamond aircraft at Rostock-Laage, and takes about 24 months in all, without the type rating. You must be at least 17 to apply and to start, hold EU, Swiss or EFTA citizenship, have the Abitur or another university entrance qualification (a foreign one with a translation; you can check it on anabin.de), and have no more than three points in the driving register (Fahreignungsregister), none of them for alcohol or drugs. No grade average is required; the course is not modular, so it credits no earlier flying, and it takes applicants up to a private license but not a CPL holder (its FAQ, read on 24 October 2026).
• The DLR test comes first. Before you apply to EFA you book and pay for the German Aerospace Center’s computer-aided aptitude test, EUR 427, in Hamburg, Milan or Zurich: memory, spatial ability, English, technical understanding, mathematics, attention, psychomotor skills, multitasking, teamwork and personality questionnaires. Everyone receives a certificate a few days later, graded A to D; EFA takes only the grades it publishes for each area (in English at least a B, or else a B2 language certificate), and the DLR says the certificate is valid for 2 years. Step 2 is the Lufthansa Group assessment at interpersonal in Hamburg or at SWISS in Zurich, with group and individual exercises and psychomotor tests; fail it and you may try again after 24 months, and no more than 24 months may pass between it and your first day at school (its FAQ, read on 24 October 2026). The pilot aptitude tests article explains what such tests measure.
• Airline cadet routes. Condor’s Ab Initio Program trains cadets to a multi-crew license (MPL) with the A320 type rating at TFC Flight Training in Essen; its posting took applications until 16 November 2026, from applicants with a German residence and work permit, who pay a share of the training cost, for a course that search results of its pages put at about 24 months from June 2027 (checked 17 October 2026); Condor’s first step is not the DLR test: you book and pay for interpersonal’s Basic Qualification ip Ab-Initio, a test of cognitive and psychomotor abilities (the MOZARD test) in Hamburg, and may apply only once you have passed it; a DLR certificate does not count instead, and the second stage, the Corporate Qualification, tests your personal suitability (checked 17 October 2026). Eurowings runs a promotion program for EFA students two to nine months into their training who speak fluent German and English, with an introductory interview and benefits such as staff travel (ID flights) and priority in hiring (EFA’s FAQ, read on 24 October 2026); Eurowings names the European Flight Academy as its ab-initio route (checked 21 September 2026); Discover Airlines does too (checked 21 September 2026).
• Degrees with flight training. EFA and Bremen City University of Applied Sciences (Hochschule Bremen) combine the ATPL training with the international degree program in Aviation Systems Engineering and Management (ILST), a Bachelor of Engineering, with the pilot training starting after the fourth semester; EFA advises passing its selection before you apply to the university (its FAQ, read on 24 October 2026). AEROTOURS, a flight school in the Berlin area, runs a full-time integrated ATPL course of 18 to 24 months, 750 hours of theory and 195 of flight training, and combinations with a bachelor’s degree in 48 months or a master’s in 36, and says funding through the employment agency (Agentur für Arbeit) or the Jobcenter is possible (its course pages, in search results on 24 October 2026); we found no price for the course.

The reliability check. Germany adds a background check of its own: § 7 of the Aviation Security Act (Luftsicherheitsgesetz) lists pilots and the corresponding student pilots among the people whose reliability the aviation security authority must check, the Zuverlässigkeitsüberprüfung. The check is made on your own application, and until it is completed with no doubt left about your reliability you may not take up the activity (§ 7(1) no. 4, (2) and (6), read on 24 October 2026). A student pilot applies with a confirmation from the flight school and a record of the last five years, adding a certificate of good conduct from any country lived in for more than six months in that time (the federal service portal’s description, in search results on 24 October 2026). Ask your school when it needs it.

Before your first multi-pilot type rating you also need a multi-crew cooperation (MCC) course, on an integrated course at least 25 hours of theory and exercises (Appendix 3, paragraph A.7.1), and the upset prevention and recovery training of FCL.745.A. The MCC courses article explains them, and the cadet programs page compares who pays on each airline scheme.

3. The ATPL exams at the LBA, in English

The ATPL theory papers, the 75% pass mark and the time limits (every paper within 18 months, in no more than six sittings and four attempts at any one) are EASA’s (FCL.025), set out in step 3 of the Europe page and in our ATPL exams guide. What is German is how you sit them:

• In English only. Since 1 August 2022 the LBA has offered the theory exams for the EASA licenses and ratings, the ATPL, MPL, CPL and the instrument ratings, only in English; exams under national law, such as flight dispatcher, are still offered in English and German. The questions come from EASA’s European Central Question Bank (ECQB) (the LBA’s examination FAQ, read on 24 October 2026).
• The clock. The 18 months start at the end of the calendar month in which you first sat an exam, and each subject has its four attempts within the six sittings, so a subject first tried in the fourth sitting has three left. Once passed, the theory counts for 36 months toward the commercial license or instrument rating, and toward the ATPL for 7 years from the last validity date of an instrument rating in your license. To see a failed paper you must object to the result within a month; the LBA then shows only the questions you got wrong, only at its offices in Braunschweig, for a fee of at least EUR 40 (the same FAQ).
• Applying. You apply to the LBA for each sitting on its examination application form, which your school’s coordinating trainer signs as its recommendation, as FCL.025 requires; after theory training at an ATO in another EU state you can still sit at the LBA, with that school’s certificate and recommendation (the LBA’s FAQ). At EFA the theory takes about 12 months in Bremen (its FAQ, read on 24 October 2026).
• English for the license. A pilot who uses the radio needs a language proficiency endorsement at ICAO Level 4 or above (FCL.055, the Europe page); what the German airlines ask of your German is in step 6.
• The radio certificate. To use the radio you need, as a rule, a flight radio certificate (Flugfunkzeugnis) issued by the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur), though the aviation authority can instead grant the privilege and enter it in your pilot license. For instrument flight you need the AZF, radio in German and English under visual and instrument flight rules, or the AZF E, in English only; each is an add-on exam, the AZF on top of a BZF I or II and the AZF E on top of a BZF E, and you must be 18, or turn 18 within three months after the exam. It does not replace the language proficiency: when you use the radio in English you must show your English as well, which the agency tests at Level 4 only (the Bundesnetzagentur’s flight radio page, read on 24 October 2026). At the LBA you can take the radio exam only together with a theory exam you sit there (its FAQ), and EFA’s price includes the AZF/BZF and the ICAO language tests (its costs page, read on 24 October 2026). Ask your school which certificate its course takes you to.

4. From license to first job

You leave training with a frozen ATPL or an MPL, either of which can become a full ATPL once you have 1,500 hours in airplanes, 500 of them in multi-pilot operations and up to 100 of them in simulators, and pass the ATPL skill test (FCL.510.A and FCL.520.A, in EASA’s online rules, read on 24 October 2026; step 4 of the Europe page). German airlines hire long before that. EFA graduates who apply to a Lufthansa Group airline are given priority over outside applicants and skip its ready-entry assessment, though each airline still interviews them, the “airline fit”, and a graduate may apply outside the Group too (EFA’s FAQ, read on 24 October 2026). Where the doors were at the last check:

• Lufthansa itself took pilots only through the European Flight Academy, which warned of a wait because it had more applicants than places, and a search on 12 October 2026 found no Deutsche Lufthansa direct-entry vacancy (checked 12 October 2026).
• Condor’s A320-family posting for pilots without a type rating sets no hours minimum but puts A320-rated applicants first, and its non-rated A330 posting asked, in search results, for 1,000 hours on Airbus types from the A320 to the A380 or 1,500 hours on multi-crew jets above 20 tonnes (checked 17 October 2026).
• Lufthansa City Airlines asked its A220 First Officers for 500 hours on CS-25 aircraft, rated on the A220 or experienced on other types, with a CPL and instrument rating with ATPL theory and MCC, or an MPL, as search results of its vacancy showed (checked 21 September 2026).
• Eurowings advertised A320-family First Officer posts for rated and non-rated pilots, among them a Prague-based one under its WINGS Pattern, as search results showed; the hours minimum of the current vacancy is among the points we could not confirm (checked 21 September 2026).
• The Take-off Promise. If no Lufthansa Group airline offers you a cockpit job within 24 months of finishing at EFA, Lufthansa Aviation Training refunds half the training price, as long as you can show you applied for the Group’s suitable cockpit vacancies and still meet the training requirements; a job outside the cockpit, or in a cockpit outside the Group, does not by itself end it, and losing your medical or license does (EFA’s FAQ, read on 24 October 2026). Who pays for the first type rating after the European Flight Academy, and on what bond, is among the points we could not confirm for Lufthansa.

The low-hour pilot jobs page lists every airline on our board with a First or Second Officer entry at 500 hours or less, and the non-type-rated First Officer jobs page who trains you on type, in Germany and beyond.

5. The German airlines, and what they ask

The five airlines on our jobs board based in Germany, each as it stood at the date in the last column; three of them had the First Officer seat open, recruiting or holding a pool. Deutsche Lufthansa advertised no cockpit vacancy of its own on the Group portal on 25 August 2026: the pilot vacancies there belonged to other Group airlines (checked 12 October 2026); Condor’s portal listed four First Officer postings and its cadet program was taking applications (checked 17 October 2026); Discover Airlines’ status was unconfirmed, with an A330 Captain vacancy relayed by a job board (checked 21 September 2026). Two more fly from Germany under another country on our board: TUI, listed under the UK on our board, names Germany among its countries and Hanover among its bases (checked 18 October 2026); SunExpress, listed under Turkey, has bases at Frankfurt and Düsseldorf and asks for the right to work for its Turkish or German operator (checked 21 September 2026). Other airlines based in Germany are not on our board, so read their own careers pages. Each airline’s page sets out its requirements line by line, and the interview guides for Lufthansa, Eurowings and Condor cover their selections.

6. Right to work, German, and converting a foreign license

The right to work comes first. None of the five German airlines on our jobs board sponsors a visa: they ask for a nationality, a residence or a right to work you must already hold. Lufthansa asks for EU, Swiss or EFTA citizenship (checked 12 October 2026); Condor for an unrestricted right to work and live in Germany (checked 17 October 2026); Discover for a residence and work permit for Germany, with meetings in Germany during recruitment (checked 21 September 2026); Eurowings for an EU or EEA right to work, with residence in the base country for some contracts (checked 21 September 2026); Lufthansa City Airlines for an EU or EEA right to work in Germany (checked 21 September 2026). The school asks too: EFA’s German program is open only to EU, Swiss or EFTA citizens. The visa sponsorship page lists the airlines that sponsor one, worldwide.

German is the second filter. The license and the LBA’s exams are in English, but the airlines ask for German: Lufthansa wants German at C1 or above if it is not your first language, by its training school’s airline-requirements table (checked 12 October 2026); the same table puts Eurowings at B2, lists German as optional at Lufthansa City Airlines and as preferred, at B2, at Discover (checked 12 October 2026); Condor asks for fluent German and English at Level 4 (checked 17 October 2026). Condor’s careers page says, in search results, that its portal and postings are in German only, though you can apply in English. Lufthansa’s column of the same table asks for the Allgemeine Hochschulreife, the general university entrance qualification, where the European Flight Academy also takes other school-leaving certificates (checked 12 October 2026); Condor’s First Officer postings ask for a school-leaving qualification at university entrance level, the Fachhochschulreife or Hochschulreife (checked 17 October 2026). EFA warns that your languages bear on which Group airlines you can apply to later (its FAQ, read on 24 October 2026).

A license from another EASA state is valid in Germany without conversion, though some airlines want it issued by their own authority (step 6 of the Europe page).

A license from outside the EASA system is converted under Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/723, through the authority of the state where you live or want to work. At the LBA, the holder of an ICAO license from a third country can ask for training credits: the ATO you will train with writes an individual training program and the LBA approves it, and the holder of an ICAO ATPL with a valid type rating can be exempted from the mandatory theoretical and practical training before the ATPL examination (the federal service portal’s description of the LBA’s service, in search results on 24 October 2026). A UK license has counted as a third-country license since 1 January 2021. FAA vs EASA covers the FAA conversion in both directions.

The military route. The Bundeswehr trains its own pilots as officers, in several years of training in Germany and abroad: for transport aircraft such as the A400M, the C-130J and the P-8A Poseidon, for helicopters such as the NH90, the CH-47 and the Tiger, and for fighters, the Eurofighter and the F-35. For all three its career pages ask that you are at least 17 and a German citizen, with the Mittlere Reife for a post without a degree, or at least the Fachhochschulreife for a career that includes a bachelor’s or master’s degree at one of its two universities; the regular commitment is 16 years, and for a fighter pilot who brings a degree it can use, at least 8 to 13 (bundeswehrkarriere.de, read on 24 October 2026). Read the current terms there before you apply. Military flying is credited toward a Part-FCL license under Article 10 of the Aircrew Regulation, on a credit report by the authority of the state where the pilot served (EASA’s licensing FAQ).

7. Money and time

If you stop. At EFA, if you cannot finish for performance reasons, what you owe is capped by phase: 20% if you leave in the first or second single-engine phase, 40% from the third single-engine phase until half of the multi-engine flying, and 60% from then to the end of the MCC phase; for losing your medical fitness it recommends insurance (its FAQ, read on 24 October 2026). Ask every school what happens to the money you have paid if you, or the school, stop.

Funding in Germany, as EFA’s financing page sets it out (read on 24 October 2026):

• BAföG. Since 1 October 2019 the training at EFA’s German location has been recognized for federal student aid under the Bundesausbildungsförderungsgesetz, applied for once the training contract is signed; for the months in the United States you apply to the BAföG office of the Studierendenwerk Hamburg.
• An income-share fund. With Brain Capital you pay EUR 10,000 yourself and it finances the other EUR 120,000; you start paying only once you earn EUR 30,000 a year gross, then pay a share of your gross income for 11 years, 12% if the whole sum was financed, capped at the equivalent of 8% interest if you fly for a Lufthansa Group airline and 14% if you do not, and every obligation ends after 20 years at the latest. EFA warns the figures are illustrations and the contract is yours with Brain Capital; the agreement stands even if you drop out.
• The Lufthansa Group promotion program pays that EUR 10,000 own share for applicants who cannot finance the training themselves or with their family, shown by a BAföG eligibility notice or a self-disclosure form.
• Loans. A KfW education loan (Bildungskredit) of EUR 100, 200 or 300 a month for up to 2 years, EUR 7,200 at most, with no income test or collateral, toward living costs; and loans of EUR 2,000 to 100,000 through Albatros, which need a borrower or guarantor with a fixed income and a permanent residence in Germany, often a parent.
• Partial scholarships for means-tested alumni of the AFS intercultural exchange program.

EFA counts the training as full-time and advises against a side job.

Common questions

How long does it take to become an airline pilot in Germany? About 24 months to a frozen ATPL at the European Flight Academy, without the type rating, by its own FAQ, starting with about 12 months of theory in Bremen; Condor’s cadet MPL takes about 24 months to the A320, by search results of its pages. Add the time for the DLR test and the selection: EFA asks you to allow at least 6 months from application to course start. The license can become a full ATPL once you have 1,500 hours, 500 of them multi-pilot, and pass the ATPL skill test (FCL.510.A), and German airlines hire before that.

How much does pilot training cost in Germany? EUR 130,000 for the European Flight Academy’s German program, the only German integrated price list we could read in October 2026, paid in six installments and without the type rating, plus the DLR test (EUR 427), the medicals, the US visa and the iPad the course requires. BAföG student aid can apply, and an income-share fund finances EUR 120,000 of it after EUR 10,000 of your own. Condor’s Ab Initio Program asks for a share of the training cost, a sum not in the posting we read. Ask every school what its price includes, and who pays for the type rating.

Do I need to speak German to become a pilot in Germany? Not for the license: since August 2022 the LBA sets its ATPL, CPL and instrument rating exams only in English, and EFA teaches in English, asking for a B in the DLR test’s English or a B2 certificate. The airlines are another matter: Lufthansa wants German at C1 or above if it is not your first language, by its training school’s airline-requirements table; the same table puts Eurowings at B2, lists German as optional at Lufthansa City Airlines and as preferred, at B2, at Discover; Condor asks for fluent German and English at Level 4.

Where do I sit the ATPL exams in Germany? With the LBA, the federal aviation office, in English, with questions from EASA’s central question bank. You apply for each sitting, your school recommends you first, and all the papers must be passed within 18 months, counted from the end of the month of your first exam, in no more than six sittings (FCL.025). A failed paper can be inspected only through an objection to the result, and only at the LBA in Braunschweig.

Can a non-EU citizen train or fly as a pilot in Germany? The European Flight Academy’s German program takes only EU, Swiss and EFTA citizens. None of the German airlines on our board says it sponsors a visa: Lufthansa asks for EU, Swiss or EFTA citizenship; Condor for an unrestricted right to work and live in Germany; Discover for a residence and work permit for Germany, with meetings in Germany during recruitment; Eurowings for an EU or EEA right to work, with residence in the base country for some contracts; Lufthansa City Airlines for an EU or EEA right to work in Germany. A license from outside the EASA system is converted through the LBA under Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/723.