What does a new first officer earn at Brussels Airlines?

On its MPL cadet programme page (archived August 2025), Brussels Airlines answers the question of what an airline pilot typically earns in a first job with approximately €60,000 gross per year, excluding allowances. The page does not say which allowances are paid or how large they are. Cadets who complete the programme receive a contract as a first officer and join the Airbus A320 fleet on short and medium haul operations. During the first months they fly with a training captain, and after passing the line check they are fully released as first officers.1

What does the Brussels Airlines MPL cadet programme cost?

According to the same page (archived August 2025), the partially sponsored training programme costs €99,500 including VAT, paid in 3 instalments. The airline takes certain costs, such as touch and go training, for its own account, but the trainee is responsible for financing the €99,500. The training takes 19 months with the training partner Skywings Flight Training and includes the Airbus A320 type rating. The airline aims for between 20 and 30 students per year. If a cadet fails the training, they receive a partial reimbursement depending on the flight hours flown, in accordance with the training contract. When the programme with Skywings was launched in April 2024, AviTrader reported that graduates are eligible to join Brussels Airlines as first officers on the A319 and A320 fleet, and that the airline expected to welcome 20 to 30 pilots a year through the partnership.113

How do you move up to captain?

Brussels Airlines states that first officers can move into a captain's role or transfer to long haul over time, in accordance with its internal promotion process. The MPL licence converts to an ATPL after 1500 flight hours and the required assessments. The page gives no figure for captain pay.1

What happened in recent pay talks?

In February 2023, unions and management reached a pay agreement for pilots that compensated for pay given up during the coronavirus crisis, when part of the pay had been converted into a cafeteria plan of fringe benefits. In March 2024 the ACV Puls union said pilots had given up an average of 14000 euros a year in pay since the restructuring and the pandemic. That month Brussels Airlines reported an operating profit of 53 million euros for 2023, after an operating loss of 75 million euros in 2022. Talks then stalled because management wanted pilots to fly as many flights as agreed in the collective agreement in return for a pay rise; a socialist union official said pilots would have to fly 14 days more a year to return to pre-COVID salaries. A Brussels Airlines spokesman pointed to a profit margin of barely 3.4 per cent the previous year. On 24 March 2024 a four-day strike was averted when management and pilots reached an agreement; the liberal union ACLVB confirmed that pilots' gross salaries would be raised, although few further details were known at the time. According to VRT NWS, the March 2024 agreement centres on a revision of the pilots' gross salary pay scale in two stages: one increase in 2024 and a second increase in pilots' gross salaries planned for 2026. The report gives no amounts, and Brussels Airlines said the deal focused primarily on improving gross pay while taking its financial situation into account. A working party was set up to look at working hours and rest periods. Earlier, in January 2024, pilots held a 24-hour strike because management would not index their cafeteria plan; a socialist union official said pilots' pay had been indexed but the cafeteria plan, a package of fringe benefits received as part of pay, had not.2345671011

What was agreed on workload and rest?

In December 2023, unions and management agreed measures to reduce pilots' workload, which called off strikes planned for that month. According to the BBTK union, pilots get more rest when they have to combine certain routes, and three jokers a year to use on difficult routes.12

How did pilot pay at Brussels Airlines get here?

In June 2022 the Belgian Cockpit Association said the Reboot+ restructuring plan had asked employees for salary and productivity efforts, including a partial freeze of salary indexation. In May 2018 pilots were already negotiating over a salary increase, work-life balance and pensions, and 80% of pilots had rejected an earlier management proposal in a ballot.89