European Flight Academy

The European Flight Academy is the ab-initio pilot training organisation of the Lufthansa Group, one of the largest airline groups in the world. Part of Lufthansa Aviation Training, it operates a multinational network of training centres in Germany and Switzerland, with flight training also conducted at a base in the United States. Long regarded as one of Europe's most prestigious and selective cadet pathways, it trains pilots to EASA standards for the group's family of airlines.

Training at European Flight Academy

The academy is best known for its full-time integrated ATPL programme, which takes carefully selected cadets from zero experience to a frozen ATPL over roughly two years, with theory delivered on campus and practical flying progressing through single-engine and multi-engine phases to multi-crew cooperation training. Graduates enter the Lufthansa Group's pilot pool, with placements across the group's airlines including Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Eurowings, Discover Airlines and Lufthansa City Airlines.

Entry is famously rigorous, beginning with the DLR aptitude test — sat at centres including Hamburg, Zurich and Milan — followed by a group assessment centre covering cognitive ability, spatial awareness, multitasking, psychomotor coordination and personality, with group exercises and interviews. Only a small fraction of applicants make it through the full selection, so preparing for these aptitude tests with structured practice is widely seen as essential; the DLR screening sets the standard for airline assessments across the industry.