ATPL training: flight schools, financing and costs

If you stand at the fence and see the crews waving through the cockpit window, you eventually wonder: what does it actually cost to sit up there yourself? The honest answer is: a lot. ATPL training is among the most expensive vocational trainings you can finance privately. This guide shows you what to expect, which items are often missing, which flight schools and routes exist and how you can finance the costs without going blindly into debt.

The short answer: what does ATPL training cost?

Expect a six-figure amount. A concrete, publicly stated reference point comes from the European Flight Academy (EFA) of the Lufthansa Group: for its training in Germany it gives base costs of 130,000 euros, without any financial aid (as of the school website in October 2026). On top come living expenses, medical, aptitude test and further incidentals.

Other flight schools are above or below, depending on what is in the price. That is exactly why you should never compare just final sums but always the itemized scope of services.

What you are actually buying with the money

Strictly speaking, you are not buying “the ATPL.” The training takes you to a commercial pilot license (CPL) with instrument rating, multi-engine rating, MCC course and passed ATPL theory. In the scene this intermediate state is called the frozen ATPL. You only get the full airline transport pilot license at age 21 and with 1,500 hours of flight experience, 500 of them in a multi-crew cockpit. You collect those hours on the job, not at school.

You can find the overview of all license levels and routes in the article Becoming a pilot: the routes into the cockpit. Here it’s about the money.

ATPL theory comprises 13 exam subjects, from air law through meteorology and navigation to flight performance and human performance. For practical training you typically first fly single-engine trainers such as the Cessna 172, the Piper PA-28 or the Diamond DA40, later a twin such as the Diamond DA42. Which types a school uses is stated in its documents.

Example EFA: how an airline price is put together

The EFA is among the best-known airline flight schools in the German-speaking world and discloses its terms comparatively openly. It shows well how an integrated price is structured. According to the school website, the training in Germany is due in six installments, each before or during a training phase:

Installment	Due	Amount
1	30 days before the start of the theory phase	€10,000
2	60 days after the start of the theory phase	€10,000
3	30 days before the single-engine phase	€15,000
4	45 days after the start of the single-engine phase	€35,000
5	30 days before the multi-engine phase	€45,000
6	30 days before the MCC phase	€15,000

Included in the price, according to the EFA, are among other things about twelve months of theory, theory exams and licensing with the authority, study material, the practical phase in Phoenix (USA) with accommodation, flights and transfers to the USA, the practical phase in Germany, the Lufthansa Group assessment center as the second selection step, the radio operator certificate, the ICAO language tests and the uniforms for the flying phases.

Not included, according to the school, are the DLR certificate from the first selection step, the fitness examination (depending on the country of license issue, EASA Class 1 medical or an FAA medical), the US visa, accommodation during the theory and Germany practical phases and a required iPad with pen.

A special feature is the so-called Take-off Promise: if you don’t receive a concrete employment contract offer for a Lufthansa Group cockpit within 24 months of receiving your license, the school refunds 50 percent of the tuition price by its own account. The exact conditions are in the contract – read them before you rely on it. Where graduates can end up ranges from Lufthansa through Swiss to Eurowings, depending on demand.

The items that appear in no final sum

Whichever school: it’s best to plan for these costs separately and, if in doubt, have it confirmed in writing whether they are included.

• Class 1 medical fitness: The initial examination takes place at an aeromedical center and must be passed before you sign the contract. More in the article Aeromedical fitness.
• Aptitude test: Many schools require a test at the DLR (German Aerospace Center) or their own selection procedure. How that works is covered under DLR test and pilot selection.
• Living expenses: Rent, food, insurance and travel over roughly two years of full-time training, during which you earn hardly anything.
• Overseas: Visa, travel, possibly additional licenses or medicals if part of the practical training takes place abroad.
• Repeats: Failed exams, additional flight hours or simulator sessions can cost extra.
• Equipment: Headset, tablet, charts and software.
• Type rating: The type rating on the first jet, such as the Airbus A320neo family or the Boeing 737-800, is covered by some employers, while others ask you to contribute or bind you contractually.

Flight schools: what to look for when choosing

For commercial pilot training you need an approved training organization (ATO). Declared training organizations (DTO) only train for private and recreational licenses. Besides the EFA, there are other providers in Germany with ATPL and MPL programs, such as TFC Käufer from Essen. The range runs from airline-affiliated schools with their own selection procedure to small operations that offer individual modules.

Criterion	Airline school (integrated)	Independent ATO (integrated)	Modular, several schools
Payment method	installments per phase, total price	usually installments per phase	per module, flexible
Selection	multi-stage, often DLR test	school’s own, varying strictness	hardly any formal selection
Employer link	line to its own airline group	cooperations possible	own application needed
Working on the side	hardly possible	hardly possible	possible
Cost risk	high, but plannable	high, check scope of services	stretched out, hard to calculate

Check these points before signing:

Financing: the common building blocks

Hardly anyone pays for ATPL training out of pocket change. The EFA lists several models on its website, some of which can be combined. They show well what routes exist in principle.

Income-contingent repayment

With the model of the EFA partner Brain Capital, according to the school you bring 10,000 euros of your own contribution, and the funding company provides the rest of the tuition price. No collateral is needed; the training contract is enough. Repayment only starts at a gross annual income of 30,000 euros, and then for eleven years a fixed percentage of gross income – 12 percent at maximum funding. Every obligation ends after 20 years at the latest. According to the EFA, anyone who takes a cockpit job in the Lufthansa Group effectively pays at most what corresponds to a loan interest rate of 8.0 percent.

The appeal: the risk of poor job prospects is partly borne by the financing provider. The catch: if you earn well, you may repay considerably more than you borrowed.

Which salaries you can realistically expect in the first years depends on the airline and the collective agreement. Background is provided by What do pilots earn?.

Bank loan with a guarantor

As a second option, the EFA names loans through the broker Albatros: personal loans from 2,000 to 100,000 euros with a maximum term of ten years or property loans from 50,000 euros. The prerequisite is that you or a guarantor have a steady income and a residence in Germany. Here you bear the full risk: the installments keep running whether you fly or not.

BAföG

According to the EFA, its ATPL training has been eligible for BAföG (German federal student aid) since October 1, 2019, based on an equivalence recognition. You submit the application after signing the training contract. Whether and how much aid you receive is decided by the BAföG office under the usual rules. With other schools, ask specifically whether their program is eligible.

KfW education loan

For living expenses, the EFA names the income-independent education loan from the KfW: 100, 200 or 300 euros per month for a maximum of two years, at most 7,200 euros, optionally with a one-time payment of up to 3,600 euros. The interest rate is based on EURIBOR and adjusted every six months. For the tuition price itself that is nowhere near enough, but as a building block for rent and everyday life it is.

Scholarships and equity

Partial scholarships are rare and tied to narrow conditions. The EFA mentions, for example, a cooperation with AFS that applies only to alumni of certain exchange programs. More realistic is a mix of savings, family and one of the models above.

Taxes: what the tax office recognizes

One point many flight students stumble over: if pilot training is your first vocational training, you cannot deduct the costs as income-related expenses under Section 9(6) of the German Income Tax Act (EStG), only as special expenses up to 6,000 euros per year. Carrying a loss forward into later years with a pilot’s salary is therefore not possible.

The Federal Constitutional Court declared this rule constitutional in a decision of November 19, 2019 (2 BvL 22/14 et al.). One of the underlying proceedings explicitly concerned training as an aircraft pilot. The court did regard the connection to the profession as particularly close there, but still held the generalizing rule to be permissible.

If you have already completed training or a degree, pilot training counts as a second training, and the costs can count as income-related expenses. How that looks in your case, you clarify with a tax advisor.

Integrated or modular: what it means for the budget

The modular route spreads the costs over years: first the private pilot license, then building hours, ATPL theory, night flying, instrument rating, multi-engine rating, CPL and MCC. You can keep working and choose schools freely. In return, Part-FCL requires 200 hours of total flight time for the modular commercial pilot license, while the integrated courses manage with a lower minimum. For the theory exams, a fixed period of 18 months applies on both routes, which you have to keep in mind if you take breaks.

The integrated route is more compact, more plannable and often the standard for airline selection procedures, but costs a lot at once. An alternative without your own money is offered by the Bundeswehr (the German armed forces) – with a long period of service as the price.

What spotters can try out cheaply beforehand

Before you invest six figures, you can test with a small budget how serious you are. An introductory flight at a flight school costs a fraction, as does getting started with flight simulation, through which you get to know procedures and instrument flying. If you can read METAR and TAF and understand the ILS approach, you already have theory material in your head.

And at the fence you learn more than you think: at the Munich visitors’ hill (Besucherhügel) – the EFA also has its headquarters at Munich Airport – or at the Zeppelinheim viewing platform in Frankfurt you see approach procedures and spacing live. At Bremen Airport, Lufthansa’s airline pilot school was based for decades.

Conclusion

ATPL training is expensive, but not opaque. A publicly stated benchmark like the EFA’s 130,000 euros shows the order of magnitude, but what matters is scope of services, payment plan and dropout rules. If you clear the medical and aptitude first, compare offers carefully and deliberately combine financing building blocks such as income-contingent repayment, loans, BAföG and education loan, you don’t start blindly into debt but with a plan.