Hello all! Im enrolling into a local flight school for my PPL, Instrument, and commercial. I wanted to go to ATP at first but i wasn’t able to get financing for the program (& its very expensive)
Will it be harder to get hired at a regional/ legacy/ part 91 or 135 company if i graduated from a local flight school rather than ATP? Do airlines or private companies actually care about where you trained? Or do they only care about the bottom line (Flight time/ experience)
Bryan,
In today’s environment getting hired is pretty easy, but you won’t have access to ATPs partnerships and agreements which are huge.
The biggest issue with local schools is most simply don’t have the resources (airplanes and instructors) to allow you to train consistently which is essential to success. Unfortunately many people either take to long and spend too much money, or simply get frustrated and never complete their training.
Adam
Bryan,
Both. At the end of the day, airlines want to see licenses, it does not really matter where the ratings come from. As Adam noted, you will not have access to ATP’s hiring alliances, so there will not be any going straight to Frontier, Spirit, etc. The bigger issue is that local flight schools often really lack in how well they handle students that want to go all the way. You will likely encounter some real inefficiencies along the way, which could end up leading to increased costs and an extended time frame. Keep your nose to the grind wheel and push the flight school to keep you moving.
Chris
Okay gotchya. Its sad that i couldnt get into ATP so it isnt even an option right now. The flight school im going to has really good reviews and is one of the best in central florida. Its a lot cheaper too its around 52k for ppl, ira, and comm. Will hiring still be easy even though im not associated with an ATP partnership program?
Bryan,
Make sure to dig in to the specifics of the program costs they are quoting you. Often times they budget off the min required FAA hours per rating and very few students accomplish it in that time. I recommend having an extra savings to pull from for extra flight time.
When it comes to future interviews, it doesn’t matter where you did your training but the strength of your application. Don’t bust checkrides, stay out of trouble, fly safe and do interview prep. You just won’t have access to the ATP specific pathway programs. But there are other cadet programs open to various flight schools.
Hannah