Lufthansa Italia recruitment
 

Hello there.

I have been called in for the DLR tests in Hamburg for LH Italia.

Can anyone tell me something about the company itself, seems like a lot of steem blowing around this operation. I am a nordic turboprop pilot. Is it a good workplace, multicultural? Any info appreciated

P.S. i have read all the horrible threads about these tests, not asking about any of that, have been sent material 2 months in advance of my test date.

Regards

1975

Sorry mate, cannot help you with that.

Just out of curiosity: Do you speak Italian?

No I do not speak Italian..

Hi there,

Italian is not a requirement, but nice to have. However I do not think that anybody cares, because in the past they didn't find enough Italian pilots anyway...

After the strike of Lufthansa pilots this spring, things have now been sorted out. Initially all captains will be be Lufthansa F/Os that are being promoted and based in Milan, until a stable operation with "own" personal can be assured. How long that is nobody knows yet, but there is some more information to come around during the week.

At the moment all crew members (cockpit and cabin) are Lufthansa employees. There are dedicated cabin members, who all speak Italian and are in Milan on a (more or less) regular basis. Cockpit is from Lufthansa in MUC and FRA. Crewmembers are proceeding from their bases in MUC and FRA to MXP, where they are usually staying for three up to five days. Hotel is provided. This of course is gonna change when people are being based there.

Work itself is pretty nice at the moment. Not as much stress as when operating out of the other hubs. Ground staff is mostly well trained and experience how it should be done (compared to Germany) helps to further increase the quality of handling. Administration is partly German, partly Italian, however locals take over work as soon as possible.

Interviews for cabin crew have taken place. Rumour has it that most of the ones that would have been taken (low number of all applicants), did not want to work for the salary they offered. Cockpit salary will be okay, but surely below Lufthansa standards, although it was promised that training and pay will be according to our level. There will be no mixed operation (original LH and LHI crews), so when enough crew members have been trained to operate one aircraft, they will start operating the first aircraft themselves. Question is when that will be, as requirements for captains still have to be announced and then people have to apply and get trained. So I don't expect it to be too soon, maybe somewhen end of the year. Btw, all aircraft are ex Lufthansa and Germanwings, initally starting with A319s (minor differences between the two airlines), while this year one A320 also joined the fleet. Six of these aircraft are for permanent use (all ex Germanwings + one LH) with LHI, having been outfitted with an espresso machine (only airline with business class on domestic Italian services!) and proper titles and all that (they all have been named as well).

Destinations are quite interesting for the Lufthansa pilot, with Olbia, Palermo, Ibizia, Split and Bari not being in our schedules normally. Other cities such as London, Paris, Barcelona and Madrid are well known however. Rumours says that once the AOC is through with the Italian authorities, flights to Moscow and other non-EU destinations will be started (don't know how Casablanca has been fitted into that...). Budapest and Bucharest are already being flown to in Eastern Europe. When flights to Rome still existed, we did have nightstops there as well, but now it is down to CDG, being the only place except MXP where you gonna end your daily trip. Therefore we fly either two or four flights a day. Ground times are normally between 40 and 50 minutes. Not much for our kind of operation, but enough. Last year we had stops in Barcelona with 1,5 hours, which was great for a little breakfast or so, but that was the start-up phase...

All that being said, I can only say that I enjoy flying there very much. Being there regulary I know a lot of the people simply by seeing them so often. If you are in for the Italian mentality, then you will not have that many problems there. I must also say that I see issues arising, when control by the German Lufthansa has gone into Italian hands. I like the guys, but being German you sure have some qualities that others are missing at certain points. We are keeping up the pressure if we don't like things...
It must also be noted that the future of LHI is far from certain. Bookings over the summer have been good, but airlines like easyJet and Alitalia will not give up their market share easily.

Given the entry requirements (which requirements?) you may give it a shot. But be prepared! The test is difficult and only five pilots made it through when they accepted applications in 2008...

You are very welcome to ask an questions about it! I will be ready to answer :ok:

Hi Greenpilots!

Thanks for taking the time to post this comprehensive summary on the LHITA operation.

When LHITA started a few years ago the longterm plan was to add longhaul aircraft at some stage.
Is this still in the pipeline or have they abandoned these plans?

Grazie,

The Doc

Ciao Dottore!

Well, there has been a lot of speculation about it, but personally I don't see it coming soon. The Italian network is not strong enough yet and the market very competitive. I am sure there will be more cooperation with Star Alliance partners that are also flying to MXP, but flying long-haul for LHI is still distant future I would say. Question is also were to get thebig aircraft and I don't think it is worth having only one or two based in MXP, when passengers can be transferred to one of the other hubs of LH in Europe (FRA, MUC, ZRH, BRU, VIE, DUS) easily. Connections to these hubs are very good and LH has a pretty good market share in MXP with all its sister companies, so I think they will rather try to get more out of the Italian market (with Air One now flying with Alitalia) by connecting more cities within the country (this season Olbia and Palermo are new and doing very good, more frequencies to Napoli and then there is also Air Dolomiti) and maybe connect some of the less frequented cities to the network. For example the daily flight to Bari was the cities only connection to the Star network, but now we also flights from/to MUC, so it certainly was a door opener. Charter also plays a minor role on weekends (Split, Ibiza, Copenhagen, Amsterdam are examples).
The overall question is how (if) the airline can grow in Europe together with all the other LH companies and where to get the aircraft. As I said, they are all from Germanwings and Lufthansa and those airlines surely need them themselves with the economy going up again. Will be interesting to see!

Any more questions are welcome. I will be in Milano next week, if anyone would like to get in personal contact and have lunch or so ;)

What I forgot to add:

I am not sure about the conditions at the "new" LHI, but it is supposed to be close to our standards, so I will just give you a short overview here. We are off-duty for at least 10 days, mostly around 12. Block hours are around 60-70 in a summer month, while we are getting paid a bit more than that. With everyone flying a lot, standbys happen about every second or third month. Many pilots commute from somewhere else in Germany and neighbouring countries in Europe (Austria and Switzerland).
Yet again, LHI should be close to our conditions, but I bet they will not meet them.

hi,

Are they still hiring pilots. Where can I apply?

Cheers,
a

Well, they are basically starting again to look for candidates.

Try to google: Lufthansa Italia pilot job. Click on the first link and it will take you to Online application Lufthansa Italia

DLR exam/interview in Italian
 

Thank you for you interest in applying for Lufthansa Italia.
Unfortunately we have to inform you, that we cannot take your application into consideration, since you do not comply with the requirements.
The Italian language is one of the important requirements.

We wish you all the best for your future personal career.
Best regards

But that was not recently, right? Italian was mandatory in the first phase, but after they didn't get enough people that made it through the test, it was dropped. Current requirements say:

"Fluent in English (written and spoken), preferably Italian fluent"

Tx Greenpilots for updated information. That reply was in May 2009.

Maybe this is the future:

::: Lufthansa Italia VA ::: Welcome on board on YOUR Lufthansa Italia Flight :::

But virtual pay not so good!

Thank you greenpilots for the reply, alot of useful information. I am assuming that they prefer pilots with jet experience instead of turboprop. It is my understanding that a proper screening process is to find certain type of pilots, that the administration want to form to their operation, instead of just looking at total hours and such things, which I think is not a good measuremark for pilot quality, instead of looking at other things as well. Pretty sure that the tests in Hamburg are going to be hard, but a challenge and alot of fun, I will look at it as a learning process and experience, instead of something to fear. I find almost all talk here point in a negative way.

Regards

1975

That's the spirit! You will certainly learn something! Hours don't count much, it is all about your abilities in getting through the computer tests and later on flying and communication.

That is because if you are well prepared, it is not too difficult to pass the first one, that makes to whole thest a bit senseless.
At the end your flying skills and your experience do not count very much its all down to the DLR Assessment and compared to other assessments, like easyjet or others, the DLR is not quite a good one and you do not get a real feedback at the end like easyjet does.

And it is not really true that they couldnt find enough italian pilots, as Greenpilots says, it was simply the case that most of the applicants (italian or not) have been selected out on the SIM by LH guys. Screening has been stopped after that.
Now after the case has been solved and there is an agreement with the LH pilots, the screening has started again and most of the italian pilots are beeing called again.

So in your case, get prepared, I guess the sky test will make it, if you pass the fist stage in Hamburg, take some hours on a 737 SIM if you are not current on it. If you pass the SIM then get prepared for the assessment.
Good luck.

That is what I meant by not finding enough Italians. From what I heard (first hand!) it was difficult to find people passing the sim, not because the Germans didn't like them, but because they did not meet the requirements. Some of the stories I heard were unbelievable... I think many applicants took the test light-hearted and did not prepare well enough.
The first stage should not be too difficult for a pilot, but the sim and the assessement center are really tricky. LH has very high expectations and standards and skills like CRM are really important (especially for captains).
Saying that the DLR test is not a good one is quite controversial statement... Depends on the perspective I guess :hmm:

Well, it was even confirmed by LH pilots and TREs that a lot of the applicants have been selected out, not because of their performance.
I know a lot of AZ guys and even 737 rated pilots failed the sim.
One point is, that now even pilots who failed in the first place are beeing called again, which is usually not the case.

If you have done other assessments with other airlines you are able to compare.

Are you sure they're calling pilots who failed the sim last year?can you tell us something more about it?thanks a lot!!!

How does the payscale look like, CPT/FO?

Hi all,

The pay for average is 4200 euros gross per 80 hrs for fo.

Does someone know what will be this in net (after taxes)?

Thanks,

nopo :cool:

Hi nopoal,

where did you get these numbers? Just being curios.

Salary is usualy given net in italy.
4200€ would be a competitive salary in italy.
If it is before tax it would be around 3200, plus per diem it would still be OK, but I would be positively surprised.

Gross pay will be not more than in Germany. Rather a bit less. Compare the table here for info Lufthansa German Airlines jobs, payscales and entry requirements.

If they pay less than in germany, net of course, then they will not find many pilots, as the LH payscale is below the salary usualy paid in italy.
But 5000€ gross would be around 3500€ net, in addition the per diem is quite higher in italy than in germany. That would be about the minimum what is paid in italy.
But as far as I know there are no official numbers.

The reason they want to get new pilots is to save money. Otherwise they could haven taken German pilots and base them in Milano :rolleyes:

Taxes are less in italy, so the total costs for the company could be less and salary could still be more. :}
And if you pay below the italian standart you might find some pilots, but I guess they will not stay for long.

Where are they supposed to go to?

At the lufthansa italia open day they told us that the salary is 4200euros gross,plus 13th and 14th salary. I don't think anyway they'll have problems finding pilots because the situation in italy is really bad. Then they offer you a permanent contract with annual increase that is really good in my opinion

@marge83

Is there also a pension scheme?

Thx

i think they mention it even if i am not sure,don't remember it exactly...i remember loss of licence insurance is included.
Bye!:)

How much are the taxes in Italy???

Because Euros 4,200 minus taxes is not a good salary at all...

That's why LH Italia is not publishing the T&C....

I went to the recruitment site, filled out until the third last page, then they ask you to tick if you apply for captain or not, if you do, they say that they don't need you, if you leave it out, they say that you have to fill out every mandatory field. End of selection process. Data will not be safed. Great! At least I got a user word and password confirmation, the sender doesn't accept mails. I think your input will only be accepted if you have an Italian collegue or university degree.

Dani

Hi there!!!

Very same with me! After selecting that my education was not accomplished in an Italian Secundary School or University, more or less in the middle of the questionnaire, I was not able to proceed any further, that is, to the following pages. :ouch: Not even able to save the application which, from the list on the left, would be the last page of the application.

Never mind!!!

Safe flights,
Zero

I failed the DLR test last year, I have just tried to apply again....but they don't accept it. Only one chance in your life...
bah...

Hello there.

They accept studies from outside Italy, as it did in my case, if it complies with the level of the Italian Magistrale, I think I am spelling this correctly.

Taxes in Italy are around 20-25% plus usualy around 40-50€ per diem are paid. I dont know what LHI will pay as per diem.

Maximum is 35 Euro per Diem with LH mainline, so expect less than that.

hi Greenpilots,
i would like to ask you some infos.
-did they take people with CPL / IR with good amount of hours ?
-did they prefer that you already have the TR on A-319 ?
thanks in advance

Why do you always think everything will be less than on the mainline?
A lot of things like per diem depend from the taxes in that country and in italy per diem are tax free up to 51€, not like in germany were this amount is much lower. Air Dolomiti, as far as I know pays around 50€, so I dont think it will be less in LHI
Remember the amount the compay has to pay is higher than the amount on your paycheck and its quite different in other countries.

@frapilot so far they didnt hire anyone, but they did accept cpl/ifr and you dont need to have a A320 rating.

eam as far as i know they already hired 4 pilots whom will be on training starting on 1st of october
i personally know one of them
they signed the lhi contract few days agò