Not only the airlines are suffering from the pandemic. Budding pilots at German Lufthansa must also be afraid. Because your flight school is threatened with closure. Now the flight students are going to court.
A large number of the once 700 flight students have been left in the dark for months as to how their training should continue, several people affected report buten un inside. There have been no classes for a few months. Neither the airline nor the flight school management respond to inquiries. As a result, dozens of students have already signed termination agreements and dropped out of their education.
The last remaining flight students at the Bremen Academy do not want to simply throw away their dream of flying and are leaving no stone unturned. In the meantime, the company is trying to get rid of them and transfer them to other flight schools that are not part of the Lufthansa Group. "This is not the training that was promised; it is definitely a lower-quality training," says Frankfurt-based labor lawyer Martina Stickler-Posner, who, together with partner law firms, represents over a hundred affected parties. The lawyer accuses the AUA parent company of breaching the contract. "We have already filed a lawsuit in most cases - now the labor judges have to decide," Stickler-Posner continues. The aim is for the flight students to be able to complete their training at the Lufthansa flight school in Bremen.
Lufthansa is resisting and justifying its action with the consequences of the corona pandemic. This fundamentally changed the career prospects for prospective pilots. The company offers advanced flight students the opportunity to complete their training at Lufthansa flight schools. Training is expected to resume in January. Flight students who are still at the beginning of their training, however, would no longer be trained at Lufthansa flight schools. If the flight students concerned insist, the training will be given to an external flight school. However, not everyone involved likes this solution.