After you get your 7 month training that costs $87,995 which includes your training program, materials, and 250 flight hours, you get hired by ATP or any instructor job to become an instructor, build hours, and they pay you until you get all your hours and then go to a regional airline?
Can someone elaborate exactly why it is $87,995. Is it because it is fast tracked and because it is a well known school that gets pilots hired? Is this an expensive price?
Someone told me that you go at your own pace of completing everything? Like it all depends on you, is that true?
Whitney,
The cost of the program is a the result of multiple factors. The airplane plus the instructor time is built in to each hour, multipled by the required hours you need for each rating (about 250 hrs total). ATP has newer planes than what you’d see sitting around at your local FBO. The cost per hour is higher but you’re getting safer and more reliable aircraft. The pace of the program also factors in to the cost. The fast paced program is 7 months from private through MEI. That program is a full time commitment, 7 days a week multiple hours a day to keep pace. The timeline is already set, you just need to provide the effort to keep the pace. To ensure you complete the program on time, there are many hours outside the airplane that instructors are on the ground teaching you whether it’s ground or sim time to keep that pace. They are also available around the clock to help you. Lastly, you may price quote out a local school for cheaper but what you lose is the guarantee that you’ll have your ratings and hours at 250 hours and no more. Local flight schools make money in each flight you take, so they have no incentive to get your flight training done efficiently or cheaply.
After program completion, you will be eligible to apply to regional airline cadet programs. If you’re an instructor for ATP you also qualify for a number of tuition reimbursement programs to help pay off your loan as you accrue flight hours to 1500.
-Hannah
The price is competitive for the training you receive and the best part is that the price is fixed. Aviation colleges can cost hundred of thousands. ATP is very reasonable if you compare hour by hour, rating by rating with other schools.
The Fast-Track Program is full-time, M-F sometimes weekends. You may have spoken with someone that was familiar with the Flex-Track Program which is a 15hr/mo minimum commitment.
The perks of going the cadet route are that you have an almost guaranteed job waiting for you, a slight bit of a head start on seniority (within your class only) and in the case of Envoy, access to a full range of employee benefits.