Eurowings has signed agreements with the Verdi trade union and Vereinigung Cockpit pilot union that will enable the Lufthansa LCC subsidiary to grow rapidly, especially in Germany.

The agreement will not only create new jobs for pilots and flight attendants, but also increase the number of Germany-based aircraft.

Eurowings MD Joerg Beissel said the agreement “means all our operational units [Eurowings Europe in Vienna and Eurowings Germany] are capable of rapid growth.”

The accord also allows Eurowings to shortly tender internally 86 captains’ posts for their co-pilots.

For the summer 2018 season, Eurowings will add 30 additional Airbus A320s. Under the old agreement, the carrier’s growth in Germany was limited to 23 A320s.

Both agreements stipulate that applicants for the cockpit take into account prior experience in the tariff classification. For example, a new Eurowings pilot with 5,000 flight hrs. of flight experience is ranked higher than a pilot with 3,000 flight hrs. of flight experience.

In September, Eurowings agreed to similar growth tariffs with UFO flight attendants union and Verdi for its Germany cabin crew.

Eurowings COO Michael Knitter told ATW that “specifically, the airline will hire employees at Dusseldorf, Cologne, Stuttgart, Hamburg and Munich (Germany) Vienna, and Salzburg (Austria) as well Palma de Mallorca (Spain). Currently, Eurowings has advertised more than 2,000 jobs.”