LOT Polish Airlines Pilot Requirements 2026: Hours, License and Hiring Process

LOT Polish Airlines, the Polish flag carrier, flies from Warsaw Chopin. Its pilot page, as search results showed it, and its parent group’s press release of April 2024 promise training on the chosen aircraft type and a permanent base in Warsaw. The First Officer terms we found are job boards’ copies of two kinds of LOT posting, both from 200 hours of total flight time: a B737 MAX posting for type-rated pilots, with a CS-25 type rating, an ATPL or a frozen ATPL, IR/ME, MCC and advanced UPRT, and postings for pilots without a type rating, with a frozen ATPL, IR/ME, MCC, advanced UPRT and a Jet Orientation Course, LOT providing the type training. The copies also ask for a Class 1 medical, ICAO English Level 4 and the right to live and work in the EU, with no visa sponsorship. None of the copies was both dated and open at the last check, on 30 October 2026, so the First Officer seat is unconfirmed. LOT flies Boeing 787s, 737 MAX 8s and Embraer E-Jets, and has 40 Airbus A220s on order, delivered from 2027.

Is LOT Polish Airlines hiring pilots now?

Unconfirmed at the last check on 30 October 2026 — First Officer seat: Unconfirmed; Captain seat: Unconfirmed. First Officers from 200 h on job boards’ copies of LOT’s postings: type-rated on the B737 MAX, or without a type rating, with a frozen ATPL, IR/ME, MCC, advanced UPRT and a JOC, LOT training the type; a permanent Warsaw base

Requirements, as published

Reading the requirements line by line

LOT’s own careers pages refused our download for this check, and its pilot page, as search results showed it, gives no requirements, so the points below are job boards’ copies of LOT’s postings: the B737 MAX First Officer posting for type-rated pilots, read in PilotAssessments’ copy, marked expired, on 30 October 2026, and the postings for pilots without a type rating, in copies search results showed on 29 and 30 October 2026, marked closed or undated. EASA’s rule was read in EASA’s own text. Check each point on the live posting.

• 200 hours of flight time. Both kinds of posting ask for 200 hours of total flight time on aircraft. An undated copy of an older B737 posting asked for 800 hours with 500 on aircraft over 40 metric tons, and an undated copy of a B787 posting for 5,000 hours with 1,000 on LOT Group aircraft; we could not confirm that either still applies.
• Two streams, rated and non-rated. The B737 MAX posting is for type-rated pilots: it asks for a current type rating on a CS-25 airplane, an airplane certified to EASA’s code for large airplanes (as the Library’s performance classes and data describes it), the 737 MAX strongly preferred, with IR/ME privileges and MCC and advanced UPRT completion certificates, and counts a Jet Orientation Course as an advantage. The postings for pilots without a type rating ask for IR/ME, MCC, advanced UPRT and a Jet Orientation Course, and LOT provides the type training. Advanced UPRT is the course Part-FCL requires before a first multi-pilot type rating (FCL.745.A, as the Library’s upset prevention and recovery sets it out).
• A frozen ATPL is enough. An EASA ATPL(A), or a CPL(A) with the ATPL theory passed; the B737 MAX copy also accepts an ICAO ATPL. 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).
• English at Level 4. The minimum EASA allows for radio communication: under FCL.055 a Level 4 endorsement is re-evaluated every four years and Level 5 every six, while Level 6 needs no further evaluation (as the Library’s pilot licensing framework sets it out).
• The EU right to work, and no sponsorship. The copies ask for the unrestricted right to live and work in the EU (the B737 MAX copy: in the country of operation), and the B737 MAX copy says that visa sponsorship is not provided.
• Who pays for the type rating. LOT’s pilot page, as search results showed it, and its parent group’s press release of April 2024 promise training on the chosen aircraft type, and LOT’s crew training page, as search results showed it, says its pilots are trained for the type ratings at the LOT Flight Academy. One job board’s copy of an entry-level posting says pilots are not charged for the type training; an undated copy of an older B737 posting said LOT pays for the rating with a five-year bond. We could not confirm which terms apply now.

Entry routes

• First Officer B737 MAX, type-rated — 200 h and a CS-25 type rating, with IR/ME, MCC and advanced UPRT (job boards’ copies, marked expired or undated)
• First Officer without a type rating, LOT training the type — 200 h, a frozen ATPL with IR/ME, MCC, advanced UPRT and a Jet Orientation Course (job boards’ copies, marked closed or undated)
• First Officer A220, type-rated — recruitment reported on LOT’s website (Pasazer.com, undated) and recorded on a user-edited pilot-jobs wiki on 3 October 2026 (200 h and a valid type rating), ahead of the first deliveries in 2027
• First Officer B787 — an undated job-board copy asks for 5,000 h with 1,000 h on LOT Group aircraft
• Direct entry Captain — not published by LOT in what we could read; Pasazer.com reported A220 Captain recruitment on LOT’s website, undated, and a user-edited pilot-jobs wiki recorded it on 3 October 2026

LOT beside its Polish and European peers

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

Read each row with its date. The other Polish airline on the board, Enter Air, which also flies Boeing 737s, advertised low-hour First Officer places from 200 hours with a CPL, a frozen ATPL, ME/IR and MCC on its own career pages, with a type-rating course from November 2026 in Warsaw (29 September 2026); at its last check, on 30 October 2026, that offer did not resurface in search results, and whether it still takes applications we could not confirm. Further west, 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); and easyJet was recruiting Captains while its First Officer seat was not recruiting (12 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: Warsaw Chopin Airport: LOT’s pilot page, as search results showed it on 29 October 2026, guarantees a permanent base in Warsaw

Fleet: 15 Boeing 787 Dreamliners, eight 787-8s and seven 787-9s, in a fleet of 94 aircraft, with two 787-9s to come from Virgin Atlantic in the first half of 2027 (Pasazer.com, August 2026, as search results showed it) · Boeing 737 MAX 8s, whose new cabin entered service on 2 January 2026 (the press, January 2026); the six leased 737-800s, flown since 2017, are to leave between September and December 2026 (Pasazer.com, 14 August 2026, as search results showed it) · Embraer E-Jets, three E195-E2s among them, dry-leased in mid-2024 (ch-aviation, 16 June 2025); the last E170s are to leave in the fourth quarter of 2026 (Pasazer.com, 14 August 2026, as search results showed it) · On order: 40 Airbus A220s, 20 A220-100s and 20 A220-300s, with purchase rights for 44 more, signed at the Paris Air Show in June 2025 to replace the Embraers, LOT’s first Airbus order; deliveries from 2027 to 2031 (ch-aviation and One Mile at a Time, 16 June 2025)

A fleet in change: the A220 order and the Dreamliners

LOT is changing its narrow-body fleet. At the Paris Air Show in June 2025 it signed for 40 Airbus A220s, 20 A220-100s and 20 A220-300s, with purchase rights for 44 more, its first Airbus order, to replace its Embraer E-Jets, with deliveries from 2027 to 2031 (ch-aviation and One Mile at a Time, 16 June 2025). Before then, LOT is retiring its ten oldest narrow-bodies by the end of 2026: the last Embraer E170s in the fourth quarter, and the six leased Boeing 737-800s it has flown since 2017, between September and December (Pasazer.com, 14 August 2026, as search results showed it). The 737 MAX 8, whose new cabin LOT introduced on 2 January 2026 (the press, January 2026), is the type of the only type-rated First Officer posting we found.

On the long-haul side, LOT flew 15 Boeing 787s, eight 787-8s and seven 787-9s, in a fleet of 94 aircraft, and planned to add two 787-9s from Virgin Atlantic in the first half of 2027 (Pasazer.com, August 2026, as search results showed it). For a new First Officer that makes the 737 MAX the type to prepare now, with the A220 the type of the coming years. A Polish aviation news site reported A220 Captain and First Officer recruitment on LOT’s website, without a date we could see, and a pilot-jobs wiki edited by its users recorded type-rated A220 recruitment on 3 October 2026; we could not confirm its terms on LOT’s own pages.

How to prepare

LOT’s new pilots start as First Officers on narrow-body jets, the Boeing 737 or the Embraers, and move to the 787 with experience: LOT’s parent group set out that path in its press release of April 2024, and LOT’s own article on the pilot’s job says the same (as search results showed it on 29 October 2026). The 737 MAX is the type of the only type-rated First Officer posting we found, so the B737 bank below is your type preparation, with the B737 interview set for a technical interview and the CRM interview set for the crew resource management questions. If you hold no type rating, the postings for you ask for IR/ME privileges with MCC and advanced UPRT certificates and a Jet Orientation Course, so have the certificates before you apply rather than after. A frozen ATPL means the theory is behind you but not forgotten: the ATPL theory banks are the revision for the technical questions. For LOT’s other types, the E-Jet bank covers the Embraers, the A220 bank the A220-100 and -300 on order, and the B787 bank the Dreamliner. We found no description of LOT’s selection, so prepare for an interview and a simulator check of the usual shape (the Library’s airline simulator assessment describes it). Do the paperwork first: a valid EASA Class 1 medical, an English endorsement at Level 4 or better, your logbook and training certificates, and proof of your right to live and work in the EU.

LOT 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. The certificates LOT’s postings ask of a pilot without a type rating are explained in the Library’s multi-crew cooperation courses and upset prevention and recovery, and the frozen ATPL in its commercial and airline transport pilot licenses. LOT’s fleet is on our pages of Boeing 737 pilot jobs and Embraer pilot jobs, the region’s other airlines on pilot jobs in Europe, and the route as a whole on how to become an airline pilot in Europe. Check LOT’s entry on the jobs board for the latest status.

What we could not confirm

• Researched on 30 October 2026 from search-engine results of LOT’s own pages, which refused our download, and from job boards’ copies of its postings and the aviation press, some of them read directly — not from a direct read of LOT’s careers portal. Confirm the vacancy is still open before you apply.
• Whether any LOT pilot vacancy is open now: the copies of the B737 MAX First Officer posting are marked expired or undated, those of the postings for pilots without a type rating marked closed or undated, and the A220 recruitment was reported by a news site without a date and by a user-edited pilot-jobs wiki on 3 October 2026
• The B787 First Officer terms: an undated job-board copy asks for 5,000 h with 1,000 h on LOT Group aircraft, another copy for 1,000 h on aircraft over 120,000 kg with 500 h on type
• Whether the 800 h with 500 h on aircraft over 40 t of an undated B737 copy, the figure of our check of 21 September 2026, still applies to any LOT posting
• Who pays for the type rating, and whether a bond applies: one copy of an entry-level posting says pilots are not charged for type training, an undated older B737 copy said LOT pays for it with a five-year bond, and the other copies say neither
• Who employs new First Officers without a type rating: one job board’s copy of an entry-level posting names LOT Crew
• The A220 Captain and First Officer terms, and the report that LOT’s A220 pilots are to train with Croatia Airlines (Pasazer.com, undated)
• Whether LOT runs an ab initio cadet program: we found none; the job-board posting titled “Pilot Cadet – Various Aircraft” is for licensed pilots with 200 hours

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 LOT Polish Airlines hiring pilots? We could not confirm it. At the last check, on 30 October 2026, LOT’s own careers pages refused our download, and the job boards’ copies of its First Officer postings that we found, the B737 MAX posting for type-rated pilots and the postings for pilots without a type rating, are marked expired or closed, or undated. A Polish aviation news site reported A220 Captain and First Officer recruitment on LOT’s website, without a date we could see, and a pilot-jobs wiki edited by its users recorded type-rated A220 recruitment on 3 October 2026. Check LOT’s careers page before you apply.

How many flight hours do you need to fly for LOT? 200 hours of total flight time on aircraft, in job boards’ copies of two kinds of LOT First Officer posting: the B737 MAX posting for type-rated pilots and the postings for pilots without a type rating. The copies are marked expired or closed, or undated. Other figures on job boards, which we could not confirm, are 800 hours with 500 on aircraft over 40 metric tons in an undated copy of an older B737 posting, and 5,000 hours with 1,000 on LOT Group aircraft in an undated B787 copy.

Do you need a type rating to fly for LOT? Not for every posting. Job boards’ copies show two streams: the B737 MAX First Officer posting asks for a current type rating on a CS-25 airplane, with IR/ME privileges and MCC and advanced UPRT certificates, while the postings for pilots without a type rating ask for IR/ME, MCC, advanced UPRT and a Jet Orientation Course, with the type training provided. One copy says pilots are not charged for the type training; an undated copy of an older posting mentioned a five-year bond. LOT’s pilot page, as search results showed it, guarantees training on the chosen aircraft type.

Can a non-EU pilot fly for LOT? Only with the right to live and work in the EU already. The job boards’ copies of LOT’s postings ask for the unrestricted right to live and work in the EU, or in the country of operation, and the B737 MAX copy says that visa sponsorship is not provided. That copy accepts an EASA or ICAO ATPL, or an EASA CPL with the ATPL theory passed, with a Class 1 medical and ICAO English Level 4.

Where are LOT pilots based? In Warsaw. LOT’s pilot page, as search results showed it on 29 October 2026, and its parent group’s press release of April 2024 guarantee a permanent base in Warsaw, and the job boards’ copy of its B737 MAX First Officer posting is for Warsaw. LOT’s own article on the pilot’s job says new pilots start as First Officers on the Boeing 737 or Embraer jets and move to the 787 with experience.