The figures vary, but are always huge: The need for pilots will massively increase in the next few years. Airbus assumes that the global aircraft fleet will double in the next 20 years, so according to this forecast, around 585,000 new pilots will need to be trained worldwide. Competitor Boeing even cites a figure of 674,000 new pilots. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) expects global passenger numbers to double to 8 billion passengers per year by 2037, so 800,000 pilots will need to be trained.

In addition to the forecast growth in global air traffic, the age structure in the cockpits also plays a role: According to industry estimates, 42% of current pilots will retire within the next decade. Given these conditions, airlines are probably at an advantage if they train pilots themselves, as Lufthansa has been doing for decades.

There are 12,000 pilots in the Lufthansa Group, and it currently needs around 500 new pilots every year. Financially, the training programme earns revenues for the group. The student pilots pays 120,000 euros, but Lufthansa meets costs on top of that, explains Matthias Spohr, Managing Director of Lufthansa Aviation Training, in an interview with the Börsen-Zeitung.

Each student – 300 a year – costs the airline 40,000 to 50,000 euros, which adds up to 10 to 15 million euros annually. Nevertheless, the fees for each student pilot are still quite high – who has 120,000 euros at their disposal after graduating from school?

Because pilots should not become a „rich kid“ profession, Lufthansa has put together a financing package with Brain Capital, as Spohr, himself a pilot in an Airbus A-320, explains. This means that the student pilots only have to start out with a down payment of 10,000 euros.

Lufthansa is involved as a capital provider in the new Aviation Education Fund of the European Flight Academy.

The financing is provided via a downstream, income-dependent model. When the students later work as pilots, they pay a fixed percentage of their income to repay the loan, typically over eleven years, starting with an income of 30,000 euros a year. „The respective repayment amount depends on the level of income; the more you earn, the higher the amount,“ says Spohr.

The discussion about the high costs of pilot training seems to be a German phenomenon. In Anglo-Saxon countries, studying usually costs money.

Lufthansa works with its US partner United Airlines on training. The first part of the practical training takes place at their flight school in Phoenix (Arizona), after the students have done a theory course in Bremen.

There is plenty of demand for training at Lufthansa, Spohr says there are around 3,500 applications for the 300 places available each year.

One downside is the low proportion of women in training. Currently, only 15% of the flight students in Bremen are female, although significantly more women attend the first information events about the profession. Spohr reports a proportion of 41%.

Perhaps this is because there are still few female role models in the pilot profession, with women in the cockpits at Lufthansa accounting for 6 to 8%. „If I want to keep flying the planes, I need this half of the population,“ says Spohr, whose brother Carsten is Lufthansa CEO. „We also value diversity in the cockpit.“ The target is to have 25% women starting in Bremen. The „Cabin-to-Cockpit“ programme is also intended to help with this, to make the move to the cockpit more attractive for flight attendants.