Do you know how much Lufthansa pilots earn?

(Patria) - Despite high incomes and the status of some of the highest-paid pilots in Europe, pilots of the German giant Lufthansa have gone on strike for the third time this year.

The main reason for the conflict with management is not salaries, but pension insurance contributions, which the union considers insufficient.

The pilots' union, the Cockpit Association, claims that the employer is not investing enough in employee pension funds.

Management, on the other hand, warns that additional costs could jeopardize the company's long-term stability.

Michael Niggemann, a member of the Management Board for Human Resources, stated that Lufthansa already offers top conditions compared to the competition and that further increases in benefits could negatively affect the company's future, writes Handelsblatt.

Director Jens Ritter holds a similar view, emphasizing that pilots of the parent company already have the best conditions within the entire group, and therefore believes that further strikes are not justified.

Lufthansa pilot salaries are among the highest in the industry. A co-pilot starts with an annual salary of around 88,600 euros, while captains with many years of experience can earn over 280,000 euros.

In some cases, with allowances and bonuses, total earnings can exceed 300,000 euros annually.

For comparison, pilots at Eurowings, also owned by Lufthansa, start at around 70,200 euros, and the maximum salaries for captains reach around 200,000 euros.

The differences arise from several factors – length of service, type of aircraft, and number of flight hours.

The path to the cockpit is not cheap. Training at the European Flight Academy costs around 120,000 euros.

However, a new financing model facilitates entry into the profession – candidates only need to provide about 10,000 euros of their own funds, while the rest is financed by the company and repaid gradually after employment.

Experts warn of differences within the Lufthansa group itself.

Aviation analyst Gerald Wissel believes there is a kind of 'two-tier system', where pilots of the parent company have significantly better conditions than their colleagues in other parts of the group.

In addition, the company is trying to reduce costs by transferring some operations to the new subsidiary Lufthansa City Airlines, where working conditions are set differently.

Besides financial issues, pilots also face increasing administrative burdens and less influence on flight schedules, which further increases dissatisfaction, despite high incomes.