Lufthansa City Airlines Pilot Requirements 2026: Hours, License and Hiring Process

Lufthansa City Airlines, the Lufthansa Group’s short- and medium-haul airline at Munich and Frankfurt, recruits licensed pilots directly, on the Group’s career portal and its own career pages. Its First Officer A220 vacancy asks for 500 hours on CS-25 aircraft, from pilots rated on the A220 or experienced on other types, with an EASA CPL and instrument rating with ATPL theory credit and MCC, or an MPL, a Class 1 medical, advanced UPRT and ICAO English Level 4. Its Captain A220/A320 vacancy asks rated and non-rated pilots alike for an EASA ATPL and 5,000 hours on CS-25 aircraft, 1,000 of them as pilot in command, and a fast-track upgrade to command takes First Officers with 4,500 hours and an ATPL. All three ask for EU citizenship or an unrestricted residence and work permit and a school-leaving qualification that admits you to higher education. At the last check, on 30 October 2026, all three were open on the Group’s career portal. It flies A319s and A320neos, with its first Airbus A220-300 due in November 2026.

Is Lufthansa City Airlines hiring pilots now?

Recruiting at the last check on 30 October 2026 — First Officer seat: Recruiting; Captain seat: Recruiting. A220 First Officers from 500 h on CS-25 aircraft, A220/A320 Captains from 5,000 h (1,000 h PIC), rated or not, and a fast-track upgrade to command from 4,500 h, at Munich and Frankfurt

Requirements, as published

Reading the requirements line by line

The requirements below are City Airlines’ three vacancies as we read them in full on the Lufthansa Group’s career portal on 30 October 2026, with City Airlines’ own copies on its career.aero career center where they differ; its own website could not be opened. Its Captain FAQ, the Lufthansa Group flight school’s airline table and EASA’s rule were read in full too. Check each point on the live posting.

• 500 hours on CS-25 aircraft, not 500 hours in total. CS-25 is EASA’s certification standard for large airplanes (the title of its Easy Access Rules for Large Aeroplanes), so the time must be on large airplanes certified to it; hours in a training airplane do not count toward it. The Captain vacancy counts on CS-25 aircraft too, 5,000 hours with 1,000 as pilot in command, and so does the fast-track upgrade, with 4,500 hours.
• A rating, or experience on other types. The First Officer A220 vacancy is titled for pilots “type-rated or experienced on other types”, but the two copies we read differ: the Group portal’s asks for an “A320/A220 Type Rating and 500h total flight hours on CS-25 aircraft”, City Airlines’ career.aero copy for the 500 hours with an “A220 Type Rating preferred”, so ask which applies to you. The Captain FAQ says a valid A220 or A320 rating is not mandatory but improves your place in the training queue, assigns rated Captains to their type and schedules those without a rating for training as places allow; the First Officer FAQ, which needs a login, was quoted in search results saying the same of First Officers.
• The license. A First Officer needs an EASA CPL and instrument rating with ATPL theory credit and MCC, the “frozen” ATPL, or an MPL with phase 4 completed. The Captain and the fast-track upgrade need the full EASA ATPL, which 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 (FCL.510.A).
• EU citizenship or an unrestricted permit. All three vacancies ask for EU citizenship or an unrestricted residence and work permit, and for a passport with unlimited validity: if it is not an EU passport, it must face no stricter entry restrictions than an EU passport does. We found no mention of visa sponsorship.
• English at Level 4; German optional. All three vacancies ask for confident spoken and written English at ICAO Level 4 or higher and say nothing of German. The Lufthansa Group flight school’s table of its airlines’ requirements, downloaded on 28 October 2026, lists German as optional and English at ICAO Level 4 or higher in the column our Lufthansa record attributes to City Airlines (the table names its airlines by logo), where Lufthansa asks for German at C1 if it is not your first language.
• UPRT, the medical, school and the selection. Advanced UPRT training under FCL.745 for First Officers, an EASA Class 1 medical, and a selection to City Airlines’ own standards, in which Lufthansa Group selection procedures may be recognized. Every vacancy also asks for a school-leaving qualification that admits you to higher education, or an equivalent; the Captain and fast-track vacancies name the Abitur and the Fachhochschulreife, Germany’s university and technical-college entrance qualifications.
• A license from outside the EASA system. The vacancies ask for an EASA license, and a license from a third country is converted under Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/723, as the Library’s pilot licensing framework sets it out; in Germany that goes through the LBA, the federal aviation office (our Germany guide). Convert before you apply.

Entry routes

• First Officer A220 — A220 rating and 500 h on CS-25, or experienced on other types (Munich, Frankfurt)
• Captain A220 / A320 — type-rated or non-type-rated, 5,000 h on CS-25 aircraft with 1,000 h PIC (Munich, Frankfurt)
• Fast Track Upgrade to Command A320 — experienced First Officers with an EASA ATPL and 4,500 h on CS-25 aircraft (Munich, Frankfurt)
• TRI/TRE A220 — type-rated or non-type-rated instructors and examiners (Frankfurt); on the airline’s German job-offers page in search results on 29 October 2026, not on its career.aero list on 30 October 2026

Lufthansa City Airlines beside the other German airlines

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

Read each row with its date. At their own last checks, Deutsche Lufthansa had no cockpit vacancy of its own on the Group portal, whose pilot vacancies belonged to other Group airlines, City Airlines among them, and its only door was the European Flight Academy (25 August 2026; no direct-entry vacancy found in search results on 12 October 2026); Condor listed four First Officer postings, the A320-family one for pilots without a type rating with no hours minimum (17 October 2026); Eurowings’ career portal listed A320-family First Officer posts for rated and non-rated pilots in search results, and Eurowings published a fast-track Captain program from 4,000 hours (30 October 2026); and Discover Airlines’ career portal listed, in search results, an A330 First Officer (Cruise Relief Pilot) vacancy and an A320 Captain vacancy (30 October 2026). German is where City Airlines differs. The Lufthansa Group flight school’s table asks Lufthansa pilots whose first language it is not for German at C1 and Eurowings GmbH’s for B2, and lists it as preferred, at B2, for Discover and as optional for City Airlines, while Condor asks for German and English at Level 4.

Selection process

1. Application on the Lufthansa Group career portal or City Airlines’ career center on career.aero; selection to City Airlines’ own standards, in which Lufthansa Group selection procedures may be recognized (every vacancy, read 30 October 2026)
2. Three steps run by Interpersonal under EASA and Lufthansa Group rules: basic qualification, screening and corporate qualification, with a special process for active Lufthansa Group pilots (Captain FAQ)
3. Stages already passed for Eurowings Germany, Eurowings Ltd. or Discover within the last 24 months may be recognized (Captain FAQ)
4. Type and home base are allocated after a successful selection: rated pilots to their type, A220 or A320, pilots without a rating as training places allow (Captain FAQ)

Bases and fleet

Bases: Munich · Frankfurt

Fleet: Airbus A319-100: four (ch-aviation, 17 August 2026) · Airbus A320neo: fourteen (ch-aviation, 17 August 2026); the Group planned 20 by the end of 2026 (Airways Magazine, 19 August 2026) · Airbus A220-300: 40 on order, ordered firm in December 2023 with options for 20 more; the first, msn 55501 (D-ACAA), due in November 2026 and in passenger service from early 2027 (ch-aviation, 17 August 2026; Airways Magazine, 19 August 2026)

A young airline, with the A220 on the way

Lufthansa City Airlines was founded in 2022, its vacancies say, and its first flight was scheduled for 26 June 2024, an A320neo from Munich to Birmingham (Lufthansa Group newsroom, 24 June 2024). Its vacancies name bases at Munich and Frankfurt, where it began flying in February 2026 (Airways Magazine, 19 August 2026). In August 2026 it flew four A319-100s and fourteen A320neos, and the first of its 40 A220-300s on order, msn 55501, to be registered D-ACAA, was on Airbus’s final assembly line at Mirabel, Canada, for delivery in November 2026 (ch-aviation, 17 August 2026). The Group’s plan for the end of 2026 is 20 A320neos, four A319s and that one A220, which enters passenger service in early 2027 (Airways Magazine). Which type and base you start on is decided after selection: the Captain FAQ assigns rated pilots to their type and gives the type and home base once you have passed, so ask before you plan around the A220.

How to prepare

Start with your logbook. The 500 hours count only time on CS-25 aircraft, the large airplanes certified to EASA’s standard of that name, so a new CPL or MPL holder does not meet them, and the Captain and fast-track figures are on CS-25 aircraft too. For the type, City Airlines flies the A320 family today and the A220 from early 2027: the A320 bank below covers the A319 and the A320neo, with a ceo-to-neo quiz, and v1prep’s A220 bank the A220’s systems and limitations, with the Library’s A220 family and limitations and A220 flight deck and avionics. If you hold neither rating, the Library’s class and type ratings explains what a type rating course involves. City Airlines’ Captain FAQ names three selection steps run for it by Interpersonal, a basic qualification, a screening and a corporate qualification, without saying what each holds, and its vacancies say Lufthansa Group selection procedures may be recognized, so prepare as for any airline selection, with an interview and a simulator check in mind: the A320 interview set and the CRM interview set, with the Library’s airline simulator assessment. The advanced UPRT the First Officer vacancy asks for 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), so have its certificate with your papers.

Lufthansa City Airlines has no interview guide on v1prep yet. Its Captain FAQ recognizes selection stages passed in the last 24 months for Eurowings Germany, Eurowings Ltd. or Discover, so our Eurowings pilot interview prep is the nearest guide, and our Lufthansa pilot interview prep covers the Group’s assessment; then read the complete airline pilot interview guide and the Library’s competency-based pilot interviews. For the fast-track upgrade, the Library’s command upgrade explains the command course and the license that command needs, and its ranks, seniority and scheduling how seniority sets your place. The other German airlines are on Lufthansa, Eurowings and Condor pilot requirements, and the route from zero on how to become an airline pilot in Germany. Check Lufthansa City Airlines’ entry on the jobs board for the latest status.

What we could not confirm

• Lufthansa City Airlines’ own website (lufthansa-city.com) could not be opened on 30 October 2026; its vacancies were read in full on the Lufthansa Group career portal and on City Airlines’ career.aero career center. Confirm the vacancy is still open before you apply.
• Whether the First Officer A220 post requires an A220 or A320 type rating: the Group portal’s copy asks for “A320/A220 Type Rating and 500h total flight hours on CS-25 aircraft”, City Airlines’ career.aero copy for the 500 h with an “A220 Type Rating preferred”
• Pay and contract terms, and how they compare with Lufthansa mainline
• Who pays for a non-rated pilot’s type rating, and any bond
• Where and when the A220 will be flown from each base: the First Officer FAQ, which needs a login, was quoted in search results with “A220 FRA - MUC earliest from 2028”, which we could not read in context
• Whether German helps in selection: the vacancies ask only for English, and an older A320 posting said pilots without German would be selected from the second quarter of 2024
• Whether the TRI/TRE A220 post is still open: it was on the airline’s German job-offers page in search results on 29 October 2026, but not on its career.aero list on 30 October 2026

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 Lufthansa City Airlines hiring pilots? Yes. At the last check, on 30 October 2026, the Lufthansa Group’s career portal listed its First Officer A220 vacancy, its Captain A220/A320 vacancy for type-rated and non-type-rated pilots and a Fast Track Upgrade to Command A320, each for Munich and Frankfurt, and City Airlines’ own career center on career.aero listed the same three. Vacancies close without notice, so check the posting before you apply.

How many hours do you need to fly for Lufthansa City Airlines? For a First Officer, 500 hours on CS-25 aircraft, the large airplanes certified to EASA’s standard of that name, not 500 hours in total. For a Captain, 5,000 hours on CS-25 aircraft, 1,000 of them as pilot in command, and for the fast-track upgrade to command, 4,500 hours on CS-25 aircraft. These are the vacancies as we read them on 30 October 2026.

Do you need a type rating to join Lufthansa City Airlines? Not always. The First Officer A220 vacancy is for pilots rated on the type or experienced on other types, but the Group portal’s copy asks for an “A320/A220 Type Rating and 500h” and City Airlines’ career.aero copy for the 500 hours with an A220 rating preferred, so ask which applies to you. For Captains and the fast-track upgrade a rating is preferred, not required: the Captain FAQ says pilots without one are scheduled for training as places allow, and a rating improves your place in the training queue. Who pays for the rating, and any bond, we could not confirm.

Do you need to speak German for Lufthansa City Airlines? Not in its vacancies, which ask for ICAO English Level 4 or higher and say nothing of German (read on 30 October 2026). The Lufthansa Group flight school’s airline table, downloaded on 28 October 2026, lists German as optional for City Airlines, where Lufthansa itself asks for German at C1 if it is not your first language. You do need EU citizenship or an unrestricted residence and work permit.

What license do you need for Lufthansa City Airlines? An EASA license. A First Officer needs a CPL and instrument rating with ATPL theory credit and MCC, or an MPL with phase 4 completed, with a Class 1 medical and advanced UPRT training; a Captain, and a First Officer on the fast-track upgrade to command, needs the full EASA ATPL, which takes 1,500 hours of flight time. A license from outside the EASA system must be converted first, which in Germany goes through the LBA.