Pilot Salary 2026: Lufthansa, Eurowings and SWISS

Anyone thinking about pilot training arrives at the same question sooner or later: what will I actually earn afterwards? It is a fair question. Training costs a six-figure sum, and most people pay for it with a loan or an income share agreement. Your salary therefore helps decide whether the numbers work for you.

This article collects what can be documented as of September 2026. Airlines do not publish their pay scales. Every figure here comes from a media report and is given with its source and date. Collective agreements change, and both SWISS and Lufthansa are negotiating in 2026. Treat the numbers as an order of magnitude, not a promise.

What does a pilot earn in 2026 at Lufthansa, Eurowings and SWISS?

According to media reports, first officers start on around €90,000 (Lufthansa), around €74,000 (Eurowings) and around CHF 89,000 (SWISS) gross per year. Senior captains reach up to about €300,000, about €214,000 and about CHF 220,000 respectively.

As of September 2026, gross figures. The frankfurtflyer.de report cites the Süddeutsche Zeitung and company information; its Lufthansa entry figure includes allowances. The same report mentions a further €23,000 or so per year that Lufthansa says it pays into each pilot's pension. For other group operations such as Discover Airlines or City Airlines, the report speaks of pay structures lower still than at Eurowings but gives no numbers, so they are not in the table.

What does a first officer earn at SWISS?

A first officer starts at SWISS on around CHF 89,000 per year, according to Blick on 9 November 2025. A finer breakdown by years of service was published by 20 Minuten on 26 October 2022, when the 2023 collective labour agreement (GAV) was new.

These monthly values are almost four years old and mainly show the structure: pay rises with every year of service, and the big jumps come with long-haul and the upgrade to captain. The annual figure from Blick is more recent.

One detail from the 20 Minuten report matters in particular: young pilots have around CHF 1,000 a month deducted for their training costs. That matches today's financing model at the European Flight Academy (EFA) in Switzerland, where the SWISS training loan is repaid in 90 monthly instalments of CHF 1,000 plus interest. How you get into that cockpit in the first place is covered in How to become a SWISS pilot.

What does a pilot earn at Lufthansa and Eurowings?

At Lufthansa a first officer starts on around €90,000 gross per year, at Eurowings on around €74,000, according to frankfurtflyer.de on 15 October 2025. The same report puts captains at up to about €300,000 at Lufthansa and up to about €214,000 at Eurowings.

The gap is a matter of collective bargaining: within the Lufthansa Group, different pay agreements apply depending on the flight operation. The report's headline accordingly speaks of a pay gap in the cockpit. After training at the EFA, the final step of the selection process is the Airline Fit, a hiring interview with one of the group's airlines. Where you start also determines which agreement applies to you. According to the EFA, Eurowings offers its own benefits and a prioritised intent to hire for suitable trainees.

The pension contribution of around €23,000 a year does not show on your payslip, but it is part of the package. The full route from application to Airline Fit is described in How to become a Lufthansa pilot via the EFA.

What does a pilot's salary depend on?

Pay depends mainly on the airline, the collective agreement and your years of service, not on individual negotiation. Cockpit pay generally follows fixed scales.

• Airline and collective agreement (GAV in Switzerland, Tarifvertrag in Germany): they set the pay scale. Two airlines in the same group can be far apart.
• Years of service (seniority): each year brings a step. If you change airline, you usually start at the bottom again. According to Blick, that is one reason experienced pilots rarely move.
• Rank: the upgrade from first officer to captain is the biggest single step. When it comes depends on the airline's needs and your seniority.
• Aircraft type: long-haul is generally paid better than short-haul, as the SWISS table above shows.
• Allowances and expenses: depending on the contract, there are variable components that depend on your rosters.
• Part-time: where an airline offers part-time models, pay falls in line with the workload.

There is no fixed number for when you will make captain. Anyone who promises you one is guessing.

How much is really left in the first few years?

Less than the gross figure suggests: in the early years, training repayments come off on top of tax and social security. At EFA Germany that is, according to the EFA, 12% of gross income paid to the education fund Brain Capital; at SWISS it is CHF 1,000 a month for the training loan.

The table below is purely an illustration. It combines the media figures for starting pay with the published repayment parameters and is not a forecast for your situation.

On the parameters: according to the EFA, Brain Capital finances €120,000 of the €130,000 training cost. Payments only start once your gross annual income reaches €30,000, amount to 12% of gross if the full sum was financed, run for a maximum of eleven payment years and are capped. All obligations end after 20 years at the latest. Because the rate is tied to income, the payment rises as your salary does. At SWISS it stays fixed: 90 months, so seven and a half years, at CHF 1,000 each plus interest in line with the guidelines of the Swiss Federal Tax Administration (ESTV).

Tax, social security and living costs come off the rest. How much depends on country, place of residence and family situation and cannot be seriously quantified here. All the details on costs, federal contributions and own contribution are in Pilot training: costs and financing.

ImportantThis article is not financial advice. Only your employment contract, the collective agreement in force at the time and the contract documents from Brain Capital or SWISS are binding.

Switzerland or Germany: where do pilots earn more?

At entry level, the media figures for SWISS (around CHF 89,000) and Lufthansa (around €90,000) are nominally close, with Eurowings lower. At the top, the reports give higher values for Lufthansa captains, at up to about €300,000, than for SWISS at about CHF 220,000. A clean comparison is still difficult.

These are two currencies with a moving exchange rate. Tax, social security, health insurance and living costs differ considerably between the two countries. The packages are built differently: Lufthansa says it pays around €23,000 a year into pensions, while Swiss pension funds work differently. And training finance differs: in Switzerland the federal government contributes CHF 60,000 for Swiss citizens according to the EFA, whereas in Germany an education fund finances almost the whole amount.

Both routes lead to very good pay according to the reports. Your choice should depend more on citizenship, language and where you want to live. For an overview of which airlines rely on the DLR process at all, see Which airlines use the DLR test?.

What is happening with the collective agreements in 2026?

Both pay systems are in motion in 2026: the SWISS GAV expires at the end of 2026, and Lufthansa is in arbitration over company pensions and the pay agreement.

SWISS: The 2023 GAV runs to the end of 2026. According to SRF on 25 November 2025, the pilots' association Aeropers has terminated the agreement, with 85% of participating members voting in favour. According to SRF and Blick, the core issues are higher pay and more influence over rostering. According to airliners.de on 27 July 2026, negotiations have been under way since April 2026 and had stalled at that point. Whether a deal comes before the agreement runs out was open at the time of writing. Background: SWISS said on 11 March 2025 that it needs around 110 new pilots a year, and according to Blick only 6 of 32 advertised positions could recently be filled.

Lufthansa: According to aero.de on 10 August 2026, Lufthansa and the pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit have agreed on arbitration. The topics are company pensions and a new pay agreement, and the operations affected include Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo, CityLine and Eurowings. The process is due to be completed by the end of 2026, the report says.

So the figures in this article may shift as early as 2027. Anyone starting selection today will join an airline after roughly two years of training anyway, under an agreement that does not exist yet.

What does this mean for your decision?

The first years are financially solid, though not lavish because of the training repayments. Pay only becomes really attractive with years of service.

Before the first payslip comes selection. At the EFA it starts with the DLR certificate in both countries (in Switzerland, SPHAIR is an alternative). What is tested is explained in the complete DLR test guide; what the certificate actually is, is answered on the page What is the DLR certificate?, and the fees are under How much does the DLR test cost?. What happens after a good result is covered in Passed the DLR test: what comes next?.

To prepare, there is the DLR's official software and, as a supplement, apps such as the DLR Test Trainer, an independent project not affiliated with the DLR that trains ten test types on the iPhone.

Sources

• Blick, 9 Nov 2025: SWISS cannot find pilots (German)
• 20 Minuten, 26 Oct 2022: what pilots earn at SWISS (German)
• frankfurtflyer.de, 15 Oct 2025: the pay gap in the cockpit (German)
• European Flight Academy: financing training in Germany
• European Flight Academy: financing training in Switzerland
• SRF, 25 Nov 2025: SWISS pilots terminate collective agreement (German)
• airliners.de, 27 Jul 2026: Aeropers and SWISS at odds over new pilot agreement (German)
• aero.de, 10 Aug 2026: Lufthansa and Vereinigung Cockpit agree on arbitration (German)