Lufthansa ends training: Bremen pilot students should look for a new job

Lufthansa trains its pilots in Bremen – currently around 700. The Group is now opening up to them that it sees no need for years. Those affected may orientate themselves otherwise. After all, the final exams would still be held.

Lufthansa, shaken by the Corona crisis, is phasing out the training of new pilots at the commercial aviation school in Bremen. The approximately 700 flight students were urged in a webcast to look for a new career path and now to leave the school without financial obligations. A spokesman for the school operator Lufthansa Aviation Training (LAT) justified the appeal that the group airlines will not have a need for young pilots for years to come.

However, the LAT feels obliged to continue the training that has been interrupted for months if the students insist on it. Those who are about to take their final exams will be trained themselves. For the rest, they are looking for places at other flight schools, the spokesman announced. Lufthansa could not guarantee a takeover, so that after five years the students would still have to repay advance payments made by the group between 60,000 and 80,000 euros.

The pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit asked the LAT to carry out the training of all flight students themselves, as promised. "We don't want a lost generation," said a spokesman. It is also absurd for the group to commission external service providers and spend money on them during the crisis. According to the VC, around 170 of the approximately 700 students are about to graduate.

According to information from the works council, it will not be decided until November whether the commercial aviation school founded in 1956 at Bremen Airport with around 150 employees will still have a future. The Bundeswehr is then likely to make a decision as to whether its pilots will continue to be trained in Bremen. The works council fears that operations will be relocated to Rostock-Laage.

Lufthansa has got into severe turbulence in view of the corona pandemic. A crash had to be prevented with state aid. The company has now launched the third savings package. 150 aircraft are permanently decommissioned. 22,000 jobs are to be cut. The large-capacity A380 is practically taken out of service.