Jetstar Pilot Requirements 2026: Hours, License and Hiring Process

Jetstar, the Qantas Group’s low-cost airline, hires its First Officers directly, but at the last check, on 22 October 2026, its page on the Qantas Group careers site said that Jetstar is not accepting applications for pilot positions. It still publishes its Direct Entry First Officer minimums for the A320 and A321: 500 hours in fixed-wing aircraft, with 200 hours in command of a multi-engine aircraft, 200 hours in command of a turbine aircraft or 200 hours on multi-crew aircraft; an Australian ATPL, or a CPL with every Australian ATPL theory subject passed; an Australian multi-engine instrument rating with the 2D and 3D endorsements; ICAO English Level 6, a CASA Class 1, and multi-crew experience or an MCC course. You must hold, or be eligible to hold, Australian permanent residency or an unrestricted right to work in Australia, and Jetstar’s undated FAQ, as search results showed it, says it does not sponsor its First Officers. At the end of June 2026 the narrow-body fleet included 25 A321LRs and five A320neos (Qantas Group, 27 August 2026), and Jetstar also flies Boeing 787s.

Is Jetstar hiring pilots now?

Not recruiting at the last check on 22 October 2026 — First Officer seat: Not recruiting; Captain seat: Not offered. Not accepting pilot applications at the last check; the published Direct Entry First Officer A320/1 minimums are 500 h fixed-wing with 200 h of multi-engine or turbine command time or multi-crew time, an Australian ATPL or CPL with ATPL theory, ME IR with 2D/3D, ELP 6 and MCC or multi-crew experience

Requirements, as published

Reading the requirements line by line

Jetstar’s page on the Qantas Group careers site, read on 22 October 2026, publishes one list of minimums for Australia and one for New Zealand, followed by the hour requirements for both.

• 500 hours, and one of three kinds of experience. Every option starts at 500 hours in fixed-wing aircraft; inside them you need 200 hours in command of a multi-engine aircraft, or 200 hours in command of a turbine-powered fixed-wing aircraft, or 200 hours on aircraft certified for operation by a crew of two pilots. Count each option on its own: command time on a single-engine piston aircraft adds to the 500 hours but to none of the three 200-hour figures, and co-pilot time on a multi-crew aircraft counts toward the third option but not toward the first two.
• PICUS time does not count toward the multi-engine option. The first option excludes time logged as pilot in command under supervision (PICUS). The page does not repeat the exclusion for the turbine option, so ask Jetstar before you count PICUS time there.
• The higher figures you may find. Some undated Jetstar documents still online, which also cover Jetstar’s airlines in Asia, ask the A320 First Officer and the B787 Second Officer for 1,500 hours total, 500 hours on multi-engine aircraft as pilot in command or First Officer and 250 hours in command, up to 150 of them PICUS, as search results showed them on 22 October 2026. The careers page gives the 500-hour figures, undated too, so when applications reopen, go by the minimums published with that campaign.
• An Australian license, and the New Zealand list. You need an Australian ATPL, or an Australian CPL with every Australian ATPL theory subject passed. The New Zealand list still asks for the Australian license and instrument rating, but accepts passes in the Australian or New Zealand ATPL subjects, and notes that a current New Zealand ATPL or CPL with a multi-engine airplane instrument rating can be converted under the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Act before employment.
• The instrument rating and MCC. An Australian multi-engine airplane instrument rating with the 2D and 3D instrument approach endorsements, and experience in a multi-crew operation or a completed multi-crew cooperation (MCC) course; the New Zealand list asks for an MCC training certificate or equivalent.
• English, medical and security. ICAO English Language Proficiency Level 6, a current CASA Class 1 medical, a pre-employment medical and a drug and alcohol test, and the ability to hold an Aviation Security Identification Card (ASIC; the New Zealand list says an ASIC and/or AVSEC). Your passport must be valid for at least 12 months, with unrestricted access to all Jetstar ports of call.
• Work rights, and no sponsorship. Both lists ask you to hold, or be eligible to hold, Australian permanent residency status or an unrestricted right to work in Australia. Jetstar’s undated FAQ, as search results showed it on 22 October 2026, says it does not sponsor its A320 First Officers or B787 Second Officers in Australia or New Zealand, and that obtaining full working rights before applying is up to the applicant.

Entry routes

• Direct Entry First Officer A320/1 — closed at last check (22 October 2026)
• Jetstar Cadet Pilot Program (a CPL with a multi-engine instrument rating, then an A320 or B787 type endorsement) — no 2026 intake found at last check
• Direct entry Captain — not offered

Jetstar beside the region’s airlines

Jetstar beside four other Asia-Pacific airlines on our jobs board, as recorded at each airline’s last check:

Read the right-to-work column first: at an Australian airline it can decide an application before the hours do. Jetstar’s 500 hours are the same total that QantasLink and Virgin Australia publish for their First Officers, but the experience each asks for inside that total differs (Virgin Australia, for one, asks for 300 hours in command, or all 500 on multi-crew aircraft), so count your logbook against each airline’s own options. All three ask for an Australian license and instrument rating and English Level 6.

For pilots starting from zero, Jetstar has published a two-phase Cadet Pilot Program, a CPL with a multi-engine instrument rating and then an A320 or B787 type endorsement, but its program document is undated and we found no intake for 2025 or 2026 in search results on 22 October 2026. The Qantas Group Pilot Academy in Toowoomba is a training school rather than a cadetship: its graduates are not guaranteed a job, and those who complete it are invited to a Qantas Group assessment center, from which they may qualify for roles at QantasLink, Jetstar or Network Aviation (the academy’s FAQ, as search results showed it on 16 October 2026).

Selection process

The airline does not publish its selection stages in detail; expect an online application, screening against the published minimums, an interview and a simulator or aptitude assessment before the medical.

Bases and fleet

Bases: Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns, Gold Coast, Adelaide and Perth, as recorded on 21 September 2026; the Jetstar pages we could see on 22 October 2026 publish no current list of pilot bases · Auckland: Jetstar New Zealand’s A320 First Officers (listing of February to April 2025, closed) · Singapore: closed with Jetstar Asia, which stopped flying on 31 July 2025 (Qantas, 11 June 2025)

Fleet: Airbus A320 family, the fleet Direct Entry First Officers join: A320ceos, five A320neos and 25 A321LRs at the end of June 2026 (Qantas Group FY26 results, 27 August 2026), with four more A320neos due by June 2027 and 12 A321XLRs from 2027 (CAPA, 2025 and 2026) · Boeing 787-8: 11 at 31 December 2025 (Qantas Group half-year fleet table, from search results), which the Group said in August 2026 it will continue to upgrade (Qantas Group FY26 results, 27 August 2026)

The fleet a new First Officer joins, and what is changing

Jetstar’s Direct Entry First Officer route is for the A320 family, and the narrow-body fleet is moving to new-generation aircraft:

• A321LR and A320neo. At the end of June 2026 Jetstar had 25 A321LRs and five A320neos, which together made up almost half of its narrow-body capacity (Qantas Group FY26 results, 27 August 2026). CAPA reported on 3 August 2026 that the 25 A321LRs completed Jetstar’s first batch and that four more A320neos are due in the year to June 2027, as a Jetstar executive told its summit in July.
• A321XLR. CAPA reported in September 2025 that twelve of the Qantas Group’s A321XLRs are allocated to Jetstar, with deliveries from 2027.
• Boeing 787-8. The Qantas Group said in its FY26 results that it will continue to upgrade Jetstar’s 787s. Its half-year fleet table listed 11 787-8s at Jetstar at 31 December 2025, as search results showed it, and CAPA reported on 3 August 2026 that the first two with upgraded cabins were flying and that the other nine are to follow by the end of 2027.
• Jetstar Asia closed. The Singapore-based airline ceased operations in July 2025 (Qantas Group FY26 results); when Qantas announced the closure, on 11 June 2025, it said Jetstar Asia’s 13 A320s would be redeployed to Australia and New Zealand. Jetstar Japan is a separate airline that recruits on its own careers site, and the Qantas Group expects to complete the sale of its minority shareholding in it by the end of June 2027 (FY26 results).

If applications reopen, the narrow-body you train on may be an A320ceo, an A320neo or an A321LR, so learn what the neo changes as well as the A320 itself.

How to prepare

Jetstar’s Direct Entry First Officers fly the A320 family, so the A320 bank below is the core of the technical preparation, with the A320ceo to neo quiz for what the A320neo and the A321LR change and the A319 / A320 / A321 quiz for the differences between the family’s sizes; the A320 interview set covers systems knowledge and operational scenarios. Jetstar also flies the Boeing 787, which the B787 bank covers, but the direct entry it publishes is for the A320 family. Jetstar’s undated FAQ for Australian and New Zealand applicants, as search results showed it on 22 October 2026, says every candidate completes a simulator assessment and that the aircraft type is explained once you reach that stage: if your hours are on single-pilot aircraft, practice flying instrument approaches as one of a crew of two, with callouts and a shared workload, and revise the 2D and 3D approach procedures your instrument rating covers. Practice the crew resource management questions with the CRM interview set, and keep the theory fresh with the ATPL theory banks, which follow the EASA syllabus rather than CASA’s. While applications are closed, do the paperwork: total your logbook against the three 200-hour options, with PICUS time on its own line, and have every ATPL theory pass, your Class 1, your MCC certificate or a record of your multi-crew experience, and a passport with at least a year to run ready for when they reopen.

Jetstar has no interview guide on v1prep yet, so for the assessment read the complete airline pilot interview guide and the Library’s airline simulator assessment, competency-based pilot interviews and multi-crew cooperation courses, which explains the MCC certificate. For the aircraft, start with the Library’s A320 flight deck design philosophy and A320 flight control laws and protections; our A320ceo to neo Difference Training course sets out what the neo changes, with a chapter on the A321neo, ACF and XLR, and our top 25 A320 type rating questions are a quick check. The license route from zero hours is on how to become an airline pilot in Australia, and Australia’s other large recruiters are on Qantas Group and Virgin Australia pilot requirements. Check Jetstar’s entry on the jobs board for the latest status.

What we could not confirm

• Read on 22 October 2026 on Jetstar’s page on the Qantas Group careers site, downloaded through the GitHub runner (the status line and the Direct Entry First Officer minimums); Jetstar’s own careers site, its FAQ, its older documents, the job boards and the aviation press were read in search-engine results, as on 21 September and 16 October 2026. Confirm the vacancy is still open before you apply.
• When Jetstar reopens direct-entry applications
• The hours figure when it reopens: the careers page gives 500 hours with one of three 200-hour options, but older Jetstar documents for the A320 First Officer and B787 Second Officer gave 1,500 hours total, 500 hours multi-engine as pilot in command or First Officer and 250 hours in command (up to 150 of them PICUS), and neither is dated
• The selection stages: a summary of Jetstar’s undated FAQ named psychometric testing and a telephone interview before the assessment center and the simulator assessment, which we could not confirm
• Who pays for the A320 type rating and when pay starts: the 2025 New Zealand listing says training is provided, and the undated FAQ says an A320 First Officer’s salary begins on the first day of induction after the type rating
• Bonds and pay: the undated FAQ says Australian-based pilots are not bonded and start on the level 1 salary for four years, and that New Zealand-based pilots are bonded for three years; we could not confirm that these terms are current
• Whether the Jetstar Cadet Pilot Program will run another intake: none was found for 2025 or 2026, and its program document on qantas.com is undated
• The current pilot bases: Jetstar’s pages we could see publish none; the list shown is our record of 21 September 2026, with Auckland from the 2025 New Zealand listing

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 Jetstar hiring pilots? Not at the last check, on 22 October 2026. Jetstar’s page on the Qantas Group careers site said Jetstar is not accepting applications for pilot positions, while still publishing its Direct Entry First Officer minimums, and search results showed the same line on Jetstar’s own careers site. The last Jetstar First Officer listing we could date was for non-type-rated A320 First Officers in Auckland, on job boards in February to April 2025, and it has closed.

How many hours do you need to fly for Jetstar? 500 hours in fixed-wing aircraft for a Direct Entry First Officer on the A320 or A321, with at least one of: 200 hours in command of a multi-engine aircraft, not counting PICUS time; 200 hours in command of a turbine-powered fixed-wing aircraft; or 200 hours on aircraft certified for a crew of two pilots. Some older, undated Jetstar documents give 1,500 hours total, so check the minimums published when applications reopen.

Do I need an ATPL to fly for Jetstar? No. An Australian ATPL is accepted, and so is an Australian CPL with passes in all the Australian ATPL theory subjects. You also need an Australian multi-engine instrument rating with the 2D and 3D endorsements, ICAO English Level 6, a current CASA Class 1 medical, and multi-crew experience or an MCC course. No type rating is among the minimums.

Can a foreign pilot fly for Jetstar? Only with the right to work in Australia: Jetstar asks you to hold, or be eligible to hold, Australian permanent residency status or an unrestricted right to work in Australia, and its undated FAQ says it does not sponsor its First Officers. The license and instrument rating must be Australian too; Jetstar notes that a current New Zealand ATPL or CPL with a multi-engine instrument rating can be converted under the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Act before employment.

Does Jetstar have a cadet program? Jetstar has published a two-phase Cadet Pilot Program, a CPL with a multi-engine instrument rating and then an A320 or B787 type endorsement, but its program document is undated and we found no intake for 2025 or 2026. The Qantas Group Pilot Academy is a training school, not a cadetship: its graduates are invited to a Qantas Group assessment center and may qualify for roles at QantasLink, Jetstar or Network Aviation, with no job guaranteed.