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Pay & conditions · Europe

Lufthansa Cargo: pilot jobs, pay and conditions

Germany · Cargo · LH / GEC

Hiring selectively

Part of the Lufthansa Group group: also Air Dolomiti

Cockpit jobs at Lufthansa Cargo are filled through Lufthansa Group pilot recruitment; crowd-sourced data (Feb 2025) says only internal recruitment from Lufthansa was taking place. Captain seats are filled by seniority-based promotion. No open external Cargo pilot vacancy was found. 777-8F deliveries are expected 2027-2030.

Pay

Unofficial figures. Not from an agreement or the airline: collected from pilot forums, salary sites and other public sources. Treat them as indicative.

First officer
EUR 90,000 a year
Captain
EUR 300,000 a year

Lufthansa Cargo pilots are paid under the same Lufthansa group collective agreements (KTV/VTV with Vereinigung Cockpit) as Lufthansa mainline pilots; the 2017 and 2022 settlements and the 2026 pension talks all name Lufthansa and Lufthansa Cargo cockpit crews together. No pay table is openly published. Press figures for Lufthansa mainline (Frankfurt Flyer, Oct 2025): a starting co-pilot earns about EUR 90,000 a year including allowances (citing Sueddeutsche Zeitung), captains up to about EUR 300,000 depending on seniority, cockpit average about EUR 235,000. The Sept 2022 deal added EUR 490 to monthly basic pay in two steps (Aug 2022 and Apr 2023), worth about +20% basic pay for an entry co-pilot and +5.5% for a top-grade captain. Old crowd-sourced Cargo figures (2013) showed FO EUR 64,600-135,000 and captain EUR 131,500-225,000; too old to rely on. Whether the press figures are gross is not stated; treat as gross annual.

Agreement news

Open vacancies (0)

No open pilot vacancies listed right now.

Conditions

Allowances
Per diem about EUR 60/day for captains and EUR 58/day for FOs (crowd-sourced, Jan 2023). Entry pay figure in press includes allowances.
Roster
Long-haul freighter rotations from Frankfurt to about 35 destinations (Asia, Americas, Africa, Europe). Crowd-sourced data (old) mentions at least 10 days off a month, usually 13-14, and 35 days off per quarter.
Bases
FRA
Fleet
B777F
Benefits
Group pension scheme (capital-market based defined-contribution model since 2017; transitional pension rules under dispute in 2026), staff travel, discounted holidays.
Union
Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) under the Lufthansa group collective agreement (KTV). In 2026 VC struck several times (e.g. 12-13 March, April) over company pensions; Lufthansa Cargo kept most freighter flights running. Talks were still open as of March 2026.

Requirements

Type rating
B777F; training provided within Lufthansa Group
Bond
Lufthansa ab-initio MPL scheme (2019 data): trainee repays EUR 80,000 through salary deductions of 5, 10 or 15%.
Licence
EASA ATPL(A) / MPL; Class 1 medical
Other
Old crowd-sourced data: fluent German and English, German Abitur or equivalent, EU citizenship. Captains promoted internally by seniority.

Sources

Not from an official source: figures collected from pilot forums, salary sites and other public sources. Indicative only · figures from 2025-10 · checked 1 Nov 2026

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