Yes, a good command of German is required to join LH. This creates a hurdle for a lot of people from abroad, just the same as in most nations, the exception being english speaking countries that are easier to get into as everyone has to speak english in the first place.
Please note that LH can hire anyone they like to fly their planes, the contract only states the terms and conditions that are applicable. If LH creates a requirement that Milano-based pilots need to speak italian few LH pilots will get to fly from there, and MXP-BCN is not a traditional LH route. We just fear that slowly all routes from Germany to Italy will be flown by LH Italy if they pay less. For instance, Air Dolomiti have flown MUC-NUE and MUC-STR in the past, with none of the crew speaking any German on these services within Germany.
jstflyin
I can understand the LH guys on this one.. then again why not take your "smaller" brothers into your boat and be a larger, more efficient group for negotiations?
In the past, LH Cargo, Condor Berlin, Germanwings and the new Condor that was created to fly the 757/767 in the early 90ies were merged into the contract. Also, deals were done to enable Cityline to operate the Avros and the CRJ 900. There were talks about including Cityline last summer, but they failed. LH seems to fear the larger groups because of their power, and prefers to have seperate alternatives with similar operations (Augsburg Airways, Contactair, Eurowings).