What are the requirements to fly for Smartwings?

captain 3,000 hours minimum; EASA licence, Class 1 medical, ICAO English level 4+

Smartwings: pilot jobs, pay and conditions

Q: How much does a first officer at Smartwings earn?

CZK 66,600–80,020 a month, gross (Not from an official source: figures collected from pilot forums, salary sites and other public sources. Indicative only).

Q: How much does a captain at Smartwings earn?

CZK 112,780 a month, gross (Not from an official source: figures collected from pilot forums, salary sites and other public sources. Indicative only).

Czechia · Leisure · QS / TVS

Hiring status unknown

Part of the Pegasus Airlines (Smartwings Group) group

Job boards carry Smartwings adverts for A220 type-rated captains (Prague, permanent or self-employed contract) and A320-family/B737 MAX first officers. These could not be checked on Smartwings' own careers page because smartwings.com/kariera did not load. Pegasus Airlines completed its takeover of Smartwings and Czech Airlines on 2 Oct 2026. In June 2025 four unions declared a strike alert over pilot shortage and overwork.

Pay

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

Czech employment contract (crowd-sourced figures)

Junior First Officer (year 1)

CZK 40,000 a month

about €20k a year

First officer

CZK 66,600–80,020 a month

about €33–39k a year

Captain

CZK 112,780 a month

about €56k a year

No union or airline pay scale is published. Main figures are crowd-sourced monthly base salaries in CZK from the PilotJobsNetwork wiki brief payscale (updated 4 Nov 2025, stated as before tax): FO 66,600 (base) to 80,020 (senior FO after 3 years); Captain base 112,780; the only captain top figure (138,000) is labelled TRE, so cpt_max is left null. A first-year junior FO is listed at 40,000. Base includes a guarantee of 20 hours and 8 landings; above that the wiki lists CZK 680/h and 500 per landing for FOs, 820/615 for senior FOs and 1,165/860 for captains, plus tax-free per diems. In June 2025, answering the unions' strike alert, Smartwings management said in Seznam Zprávy that the average captain's total annual pay is over CZK 3 million. Foreign B737 captains on self-employed contractor terms are paid differently in EUR (see expat block).

Expat contract

Unofficial figures. Not from the airline or an agreement. Indicative only.

First officer

Not published

Captain

EUR 6,800 a month

No union or airline pay scale is published. cpt_min is the guaranteed monthly base of EUR 6,800 for 40 tariff hours on the B737 captain contract running from January 2025, as given in the Ready For Take-Off Book (RFTB) pilot-conditions page dated 27 Mar 2026. Hours above 40 are paid at EUR 180 per hour. Ground school pays EUR 5,000 per month. RFTB works an 85-block-hour month out at about EUR 15,400 before tax; that is a model, not a contract maximum, so cpt_max is null. Many B737 pilots are self-employed, and their pay is quoted before VAT and before the pilot's own tax and social contributions. RFTB's FO figures are the author's estimates, so they are not used here. In 2021, five foreign contractor pilots took Smartwings to insolvency court over unpaid pay and contractual severance worth six months' salary (eurozpravy.cz).

Open vacancies (0)

No open pilot vacancies listed right now.

Conditions

Allowances: Employees (PilotJobsNetwork, Nov 2025): CZK 680/h and 500/landing (FO), 820/615 (senior FO), 1,165/860 (captain) above the 20 h / 8 landing guarantee; ACMI stay CZK 1,300 (SFO) or 1,800 (captain) per day; tax-free per diems. Captain contract (RFTB, from Jan 2025): EUR 180/h above 40 h; EUR 500/month stay and travel allowance Jun-Sep at European bases; EUR 163 per standby day; EUR 170 per short-notice duty (under 48 h notice); EUR 260 per day off worked.
Roster: RFTB gives 20 on / 10 off with 10 consecutive days off a month. Rosters often change at short notice, with frequent night flying. ACMI deployments of 20-30 days, mostly Oct-May, go to places such as India, Cameroon and the Canary Islands. The unions' June 2025 strike alert pointed to overwork, unpredictable schedule changes and long stays abroad.
Bases: PRG, BTS, BUD, KTW, WAW
Fleet: B737-800, B737 MAX 8, B737-900ER, A220-300, A320
Benefits: Adverts mention ACMI opportunities and career development. RFTB says contractors arrange their own health insurance and pay about EUR 500 for the first uniform set, with no paid leave beyond rostered days off.
Union: Smart Unity; Odborová organizace posádek letadel; CZALPA ČSA (Czech Air Line Pilots Association); Odborový svaz zaměstnanců letectví

Requirements

Captain: 3,000 hours minimum
Type rating: Varies by contract. Some non-type-rated FO contracts make the pilot pay for the type rating (RFTB). Direct-entry A220 captains need a current A220 rating.
Licence: EASA licence, Class 1 medical, ICAO English level 4+
Other: A220 captain advert: 3,000 h total, 500 h PIC on A220, no break in flying over 12 months, unrestricted EU passport, yellow fever vaccination, age 26-60. Offered as a permanent or self-employed contract.

Sources

Not from an official source: figures collected from pilot forums, salary sites and other public sources. Indicative only · figures from 2025-11 · checked 1 Nov 2026

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