I’m a senior in high school graduating in May of 2025 and I my goal is to become an airline pilot. I’ve researched a lot about ATP but I haven’t been able to reach anyone with questions. Why should I choose ATP? What are the pros and cons of ATP? What information is there on the Massachusetts locations? Is it a good program to start from zero time?
I have further more questions but these are the main ones I have. Hopeful to receive some answers.
Thank you!
Isn’t that what you’re doing now? Further virtually every thread on here (and the ATP website itself) pretty much answer the questions you’re asking. The reason I’m pointing this out is because if your “goal is to become an airline pilot”, you’ll really need to step up your research ability. Flight school and airline training isn’t like HS, you’ll be given the resources you need but it’s up to YOU to find the answers. With that here are some quick and dirty answers:
ATP is the largest most successful flight school in the country. They’ve been training pilots for the airlines for 40yrs, have had tens of thousands of grads hired (average 1,000+ every 12mos) and more partnerships and agreements than any other school in the country.
The pros are the above plus the benefit of training in a program created by airline pilots to train airline pilots. The biggest “con” (if you can call it that) is ATP most definitely isn’t for everyone. The program is modeled after actual airline training and it’s highly accelerated. It requires a 100% commitment for success and frankly not everyone is up to the task. With that in mind not everyone should be an airline pilot either.
Directory of Flight Training School Locations / ATP Flight School
The program was created for this purpose and most other programs in the country were created by ATP grads and modeled after the Airline Career Pilot Program.
Adam
Hey Gabriel, ATP Admissions here!
It looks like you have some questions in deciding your future in aviation. ATP Admissions would be more than happy to answer any questions or concerns you might have. You may also schedule a tour and check out our facilities and aircrafts and see if we will be the right fit for you!
Feel free to give us a call at your convenience so that we may better assist you. ATP Admissions is available M-F 8am-7pm EST and our phone number is 904-595-7950.
Gabriel,
Sorry I’m late to the party, sometimes threads bump down as new ones get added, and I miss them. First off, we are not sales personnel for ATP, we are not going to tell you that you should come to ATP; however, if you look in the upper left of the screen, you’ll find an AirlinePilot.life with the ATP logo right under it… this forum is sponsored by ATP. All four mentors AND some of our regular graduates are all successful graduates of ATP, now placed in the field or industry where they desired. There is so much valuable information on this forum AND ATP’s website that I think you should indulge into, but for now, let’s answer some of these questions:
Take a smaller-scale flight school, 3 airplanes, 4 instructors, 1 maintenance base, 1 simulator compared to ATP’s large network of around 80 locations, 600+ planes, and hundreds of instructors… the statistics don’t lie. ATP has been around, as Adam said, 40 years, this year we came together and celebrated 40 years of ATP in Fort Worth, TX, last month! It was a great time, must I remind everyone that comes across this thread. ATP has established, for YOU (as a student), tens of airline partnerships that can help you get placed into the industry upon completion of the program, AND acquiring the appropriated hours (I’m struggling to find another flight school that has that many opportunities for their alumni).
Anywhere you go, there will be pro’s and con’s, as Adam said already, ATP isn’t for everyone and that’s why we strongly recommend you do your research (like now) in finding the right flight school and location for YOU. ATP is an accelerated program, take what you’d learn in 4-years at a university and compress it into 9 months… that’s like compressing a large file into a zip file to send in an email. The pro’s to ATP are all over, look at the forum, look at ATP’s statistics, look at where their graduates are… do I say more?
Adam’s got you the link.
ATP created a program that is most efficient, safe, and effective track to get you to where you want to be at the end of all your training and time building.
Brady
Hi Brady, I appreciate you taking time to respond to my question.
Regarding your first flight and tour of my local facility. Do I need to schedule a first flight to get a tour of the facility or can I do those separate? I’m planning on calling ATP admissions early next week.
Thanks!
Gabriel,
You will need to call Admissions to schedule the admission flight and tour of facility. Reference Michelle’s phone number in her reply:
Brady
Gabriel,
Like Brady pointe out, this forum is sponsored by ATP and all the mentors are ATP graduates. We were once in your shoes and chose ATP to start our flight training journey. Now we are all living our lives as successful airline pilots. There are other flight schools out there. Do your research and see which is the best fit for you.
Here’s more info on ATP’s Career pilot program. Between there and this forum, you’ll get a much clearer picture of what it takes to become an airline pilot.
Hannah