What does Finnair publish about pilot pay?

Finnair says the starting salary for each pilot is determined by the collective agreement in force at the time, and that it is currently around 4,500 euros per month, including flight allowance. During the pay dispute in November 2024, the Finnish broadcaster Yle reported Finnair as saying that a newly hired pilot earned about 5,000 euros a month including flight allowances. Yle also cited a 2022 Kauppalehti report that a Finnair pilot could earn more than 11,000 euros a month at best, including allowances.12

How does a Finnair pilot career progress?

Finnair has approximately 850 pilots, according to its careers site. After a commercial pilot licence, new pilots complete a first officer course, simulator training and type rating courses lasting about two to three months, and the career can lead to captain on a wide-body aircraft. Finnair describes its MPL programme as a route that can progress all the way to Airbus A350 captain. The employers' organisation Palta said in November 2024 that pilots' earnings had risen by about 20 per cent over the previous agreement period, because of a change to the pay system and longer flight times on Asian routes.123

What about pensions and retirement?

Finnair gives the retirement age for its pilots as currently 55 to 65 years. Palta said in November 2024 that the supplementary pension scheme already allows a pilot to retire as early as 55. In its 2025 financial statements, Finnair reports that index adjustments to pension obligations were reinstated for pilots in 2024.129

What does the Finnair MPL programme cost?

For the application round that ran from 17 April to 3 May 2026, the Finnair MPL programme costs the student 60,000 euros: 37,500 euros is paid in three instalments during training and the remaining 22,500 euros once the student has been employed by Finnair. The training takes approximately 22 months, with the first 18 to 20 months at Center Air Pilot Academy in Roskilde, Denmark, and the final part in the A320 simulator in Vantaa. Graduates receive five years of priority for employment as a Finnair A320 pilot. Finnair aims to train approximately 40 to 60 pilots per year through the programme and estimates its own demand at 80 to 100 pilots per year over the coming years. The first graduates are expected to start flying around the summer of 2028. Students pay their own accommodation in Finland and Denmark.3

What happened in the 2024 to 2025 pilot dispute?

The pilots' union SLL negotiates with Palta, which represents Finnair, and the pilots were without an agreement from 30 September 2024. The pilots demanded salary increases and improvements to their supplementary pension scheme, and two strike days in December 2024 led to around 300 cancelled flights. In February 2025, Finnair began restructuring talks covering up to 90 pilots, linked to the industrial action spreading to its crew-leasing arrangement with Qantas. A central issue was standby duty, which Finnair wanted to keep in the agreement and the pilots wanted to make optional. The same month, SLL rejected the national conciliator's third settlement proposal, with its chair citing a lack of compensation for earlier savings and several years of nearly zero pay increases. On 8 June 2025, SLL and Palta reached a negotiated result covering three years, with the last year optional, which still had to be approved by both sides' executive boards. Finnair confirmed in its half-year report that agreements with the pilots, cabin crew and travel agency staff were reached in the second quarter of 2025. According to Finnair, industrial action in 2025 had a direct negative impact of around 68 million euros on its comparable operating result.2456789

Do you need to speak Finnish?

Yes. Finnish citizenship is not required, but fluency in Finnish and English is required for all Finnair pilots.1