LEAV Aviation: An ACMI Launchpad For Newly A320-Rated Pilots

LEAV Aviation GmbH is a young German airline based at Cologne Bonn Airport (CGN), operating under IATA code KK, ICAO code NGN and the radio callsign YODA. It is a small, privately held operator whose core business is ACMI (Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance, Insurance) and wet-lease flying for other airlines, supplemented by charter work and a growing programme of its own seasonal leisure flights. In practical terms, LEAV is a capacity provider: for much of the year its aircraft and crews fly under the flight numbers and branding of larger carriers that need extra lift.

The company was founded in 2020 as JOOT Aviation Project GmbH and was renamed LEAV Aviation GmbH in 2021. It received its Air Operator Certificate from Germany's Federal Aviation Office (the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt) in May 2022 and began revenue operations shortly afterwards. The airline was co-founded by Daniel Broda, a former easyJet pilot who serves as CEO, together with Johannes Klinsmann, a former Germania manager. According to public reporting, the two founders hold roughly three quarters of the company, with the balance in the hands of a group of German, Swiss and Czech investors.

This profile is aimed at pilots weighing a move to LEAV, whether as a first jet job or a stepping stone. Because LEAV is small and relatively new, it does not publish the kind of collective agreements, pay tables and roster rules that legacy carriers make available. Where hard figures exist, they are stated plainly below. Where they do not, this article says so and provides the wider German market context rather than inventing numbers.

LEAV Aviation runs a single-type fleet of three Airbus A320-200 aircraft, each fitted in a high-density, all-economy layout of 180 seats. A one-type fleet keeps training, spares and rostering simple, which is exactly what an ACMI operator needs in order to slot into different clients' networks at short notice. The aircraft are second-hand airframes acquired from the leasing market, so this is a mature rather than a brand-new fleet: independent trackers put the average age at roughly 15 years as of late 2025.

The airline reached three aircraft in November 2025, a milestone the German trade press described as the fleet size needed for genuinely stable operations. That third frame also coincided with LEAV opening additional German departure airports for its own leisure flights, so the fleet growth and the network growth are linked.

Fleet data compiled from public registries and German aviation press, late 2025. All three aircraft share the same 180-seat single-class cabin.

Because ACMI and wet-lease sit at the centre of LEAV's business, understanding who the airline flies for tells you more about daily life than any published timetable. Since 2022 LEAV has provided capacity to a rotating list of European leisure and network carriers, positioning itself as a partner for short-term needs and seasonal peaks. Its very first commercial flight, operated by D-ANDI, was a wet-lease rotation for Transavia from Amsterdam to Rhodes. Since then the client list published in reference profiles and confirmed in trade reporting has grown considerably.

Client relationships confirmed in German and international aviation trade reporting, 2022–2024. ACMI contracts are seasonal and rotate, so the active customer at any given time will vary.

Alongside this contract flying, LEAV has been building its own scheduled leisure programme. It has sold flights from Cologne Bonn to Mediterranean destinations such as Kos, Rhodes, Heraklion and Palma de Mallorca, and has also operated from Munich and Frankfurt. From the 2026 summer season the airline plans to base an aircraft at Münster/Osnabrück (FMO), flying to Heraklion, Fuerteventura, Rhodes and Palma, and to add departures at Erfurt–Weimar and Düsseldorf. For pilots, this dual model means a mix of client-driven ACMI rotations and LEAV-branded leisure sectors, all within short and medium-haul range of roughly 3,200 kilometres.

LEAV Aviation does not publish pilot pay scales, and as a small, non-collectively-bargained operator it is under no obligation to. What can be confirmed comes from the airline's own recruitment materials: LEAV advertises a guaranteed year-round salary, a block-hour pay structure on top of that base, and per diems for time spent away from base. New joiners are also given hotel accommodation for their first four weeks while relocating to Cologne. A guaranteed year-round salary matters in the ACMI world, because it means income does not collapse in the quiet winter months when contract flying thins out.

Beyond that structure, exact euro figures for LEAV are not in the public domain. To give a useful frame of reference, the table below shows indicative pay bands for the German small-charter and ACMI segment that LEAV sits within, drawn from published German pilot-salary research and crowd-sourced pay data for comparable carriers. These are market benchmarks for the segment, not LEAV's own published numbers. Treat them as a sanity check on any offer, and confirm the real figures directly with the airline.

Indicative German Charter / ACMI Pay Bands (Segment Benchmark)

Segment benchmarks only, compiled from German pilot-salary research and comparable-carrier pay data (for example Sundair and other small German charter operators). Not LEAV-specific and not confirmed by the airline.

For context, the wider German market runs from roughly €55,000 for a First Officer at a low-cost subsidiary up to around €280,000 for a senior Captain at Lufthansa mainline. Small charter and ACMI carriers sit toward the lower-to-middle end of that spread. They compete on the chance to build jet hours and, in LEAV's case, on accepting low-experience type-rated pilots, rather than on headline salary. Take-home pay in Germany is also shaped by income tax and social contributions, which are significant, so gross figures overstate what lands in your account.

LEAV does not publish a roster pattern, a fixed days-off ratio or block-hour targets, so this section describes the regulatory framework that governs the airline and the practical rhythm of ACMI flying, rather than presenting a specific monthly grid that the airline has not disclosed. Fabricating a sample roster would not serve you; what follows is the honest picture of the constraints LEAV must work within.

As a German AOC holder, LEAV rosters its pilots under EASA Flight Time Limitations and German labour law. EASA FTL sets the hard ceilings that no operator, large or small, can exceed: a rolling limit of 100 flight hours in any 28 consecutive days, 900 flight hours per calendar year, and 1,000 total duty hours in any 12 months, along with mandated minimum rest periods and limits on consecutive early or night duties. These rules exist to manage fatigue and apply to LEAV exactly as they apply to Lufthansa.

The practical shape of the roster follows the ACMI calendar. Summer, when European leisure demand peaks and clients need extra capacity, is intense: crews can expect high utilisation and dense duty periods, pushing toward the FTL limits. Winter is quieter, which is precisely why the guaranteed year-round salary described earlier is a meaningful feature. Because the aircraft is a short and medium-haul A320, most flying is out-and-back day sectors to Mediterranean and Canary destinations rather than multi-day trips with long layovers, although a client contract that bases an aircraft away from Cologne can introduce down-route night stops for a season.

As a German employer, LEAV operates within one of Europe's more protective labour and social-security frameworks, which sets a baseline for benefits regardless of the airline's size. Beyond the statutory floor, the airline's own published materials confirm only a handful of specific perks, and it does not advertise the extensive travel and pension packages that legacy carriers use to attract crew. The realistic summary is a solid statutory foundation plus a small number of practical, ACMI-appropriate extras.

Two points are worth underlining for anyone comparing LEAV with other European employers. First, Germany has no dedicated aircrew pension fund equivalent to the French CRPN; German pilots build their retirement through the statutory Deutsche Rentenversicherung and any voluntary or company arrangement on top. LEAV's public materials do not confirm a supplementary company pension, so that is a specific question to raise in an interview. Second, LEAV is not part of a large airline group, which means the interline and heavily discounted staff-travel networks that come with membership of a global alliance are not on offer here.

LEAV does not publish an upgrade timeline, a seniority list or a formal command-progression policy, so career planning here has to be assessed through the airline's size, structure and growth rather than a documented ladder. The most useful way to think about LEAV is as an entry point and stepping stone rather than a lifetime career airline. Its willingness to hire A320-rated First Officers with no jet line experience is precisely what makes it valuable to a low-hour pilot: it converts a fresh type rating into real airline hours and a jet logbook, which then open doors elsewhere.

Internal upgrade to Captain is a different question. With a three-aircraft fleet, the number of command positions is inherently small, and upgrades at operators of this size depend heavily on fleet growth and crew turnover rather than a fixed number of years. Small carriers sometimes recruit experienced direct-entry Captains to fill command seats quickly as they add aircraft, though LEAV has not published a formal policy either way. The airline's recent expansion to three aircraft and its plans for new bases in 2026 are encouraging for opportunity, but they are not a guarantee of a defined upgrade path.

Structural assessment based on LEAV's fleet size, recruitment materials and typical practice at small German operators. No official LEAV upgrade timeline is published.

LEAV recruits pilots directly and through aviation recruitment partners, advertising on its own careers page, on specialist job boards and via its social channels, with applications and enquiries directed to jobs@leav.com. Hiring is need-driven and tied to fleet and contract growth rather than run as an annual cadet campaign, so vacancies appear when the airline is adding capacity, as it did around the arrival of its third aircraft.

First Officer Requirements (from LEAV's published advert)

How the Process Typically Runs

To put LEAV in context, the chart below compares it against two other German leisure and charter operators across the same six themes used in the scorecard: Sundair, a similarly small German charter carrier, and Condor, a much larger and more established German leisure airline with a collectively bargained pay structure. Scores are editorial estimates based on publicly available data, comparable-carrier pay research and pilot-community feedback. They are a general guide for a pilot weighing a long-term move, not precise measurements.

Key Takeaways from the Comparison

Condor leads on pay and stability. Condor pilots are covered by a Vereinigung Cockpit collective agreement, with First Officer base pay research placing entry levels around €80,000 and rising into six figures, and Captains ranging from roughly €150,000 to over €220,000, plus agreed multi-year increases. Neither LEAV nor Sundair, as small carriers without published union agreements, can match that structure or headline number.

LEAV and Sundair are close peers, with different strengths. Both are small German charter operators without a public collective agreement, so pay sits toward the lower end of the market. LEAV's edge is its guaranteed year-round salary and its openness to newly type-rated pilots, which is genuinely valuable for a first jet job. Pilot-community feedback about Sundair has flagged stalled internal upgrades and lean allowances, which is why LEAV scores marginally higher on career progression and benefits in this editorial view.

Fleet favours Condor. Condor is renewing with new-generation A320neo and A330neo aircraft, whereas both LEAV and Sundair operate mature, second-hand A319/A320 airframes in the mid-teens for average age. All three are single or twin-family narrowbody operations on the short and medium-haul leisure market, so the operational flying is broadly similar even where the equipment differs.

Job security reflects scale. Condor is an established brand with decades of history; LEAV and Sundair are small and, in LEAV's case, very young, with income tied to seasonal contracts. LEAV's move to a three-aircraft fleet and a reported profit in 2023 are positive signals, but a startup ACMI carrier carries more inherent uncertainty than a large network leisure airline.

The dominant pilot union in Germany is Vereinigung Cockpit (VC), the German Air Line Pilots' Association, which represents around 9,000 flight crew members across the country's airlines. VC negotiates collective agreements, campaigns on flight safety and fatigue, and represents German pilots internationally through the European Cockpit Association and IFALPA. Its collective agreements at carriers such as Condor and TUI fly set much of the benchmark for pay, rostering protection and working conditions that German pilots use to judge any employer.

There is no public evidence that LEAV Aviation's pilots are covered by a VC collective agreement. This is unsurprising for a company founded in 2020 with roughly 110 staff and three aircraft: small, young operators typically run on individual employment contracts rather than negotiated tariff agreements, and formal union representation tends to arrive later, if a workforce grows and organises. Individual pilots are of course free to join VC for support and representation regardless of whether their employer has a company agreement.

For a pilot evaluating LEAV, the practical implication is that your pay and terms are likely set individually rather than by a collectively bargained scale. That can mean more flexibility, but also less of the structural protection, published pay progression and formal roster safeguards that a union agreement provides at a larger airline. It makes reading your contract carefully, and clarifying terms up front, all the more important.