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2026 Airline Hiring Season: What We Know So Far

Admin|April 1, 2026|3 min read

Table of Contents

  1. Confirmed 2026 course starts and windows
  2. What this means for your preparation

2026 is an active year for cadet recruitment across Europe. Based on the airlines' own published programmes, here is where the major ab-initio windows stand — with the one takeaway that matters most: selection dates arrive faster than preparation does, so work back three to six months from any date below.

Confirmed 2026 course starts and windows

  • Wizz Air — Pilot Academy courses at Tréner in Nyíregyháza start more than once a year, and in 2026 the Academy opened its recruitment to candidates in Cyprus. Candidates from elsewhere in the EU apply to the Wizz Air Pathway Programme at Urbe Aero in Rome.

  • Condor Ab-initio Program — course starts on 13 July 2026, 26 October 2026 and 25 January 2027, with roughly 15 cadets per course.

  • Aegean Pilot Scholarship — the 2026 intake closed on 21 December 2025; with up to 40 fully funded places per year confirmed through 2028, the next window is expected in late 2026.

  • Brussels Airlines MPL — applications for 2026 have closed; intakes open periodically, and Skywings recommends starting selection four to six months before your intended course start.

  • British Airways Speedbird Pilot Academy — the 2026 window opened on 14 April and closed on 23 April, with up to 160 fully funded places; these windows last barely a week, so preparation must be finished before the next one opens.

  • easyJet Generation easyJet MPL — as of September 2026, open to UK candidates after the CAE partnership was renewed for five years, with 80 UK and 20 EASA places in the 2026 cycle. The EU (EASA) route has been closed to new applicants since January 2025: its 20 places in that cycle go to candidates already in selection, and CAE does not expect the next EASA intake before autumn 2027.

  • Ryanair Future Flyer Academy — recruits continuously across its partner schools in Ireland, the UK, Poland, France and Italy, alongside year-round direct-entry hiring.

  • KLM Flight Academy — selection was restructured in April 2025 with a new pre-selection test day in front of the classic phases; applications run via the academy.

What this means for your preparation

Every one of these selections opens with a trainable aptitude stage — TestAir360 at Wizz Air, cognitive tests and the MOZARD at Condor, COMPASS at Brussels Airlines and Aegean, the Aon (cut-e) tests at Ryanair, the AMC test phases at KLM. If you are aiming at a late-2026 or 2027 window, the preparation that decides your result starts now, not when the application form opens.

Browse the courses for a stage-by-stage breakdown of each selection, and always confirm dates on the airlines' own careers pages — windows move.