I’m not sure what school I should attend. I’m pretty sure I want to be a charter pilot and not a commercial pilot. Is ATP still a good choice for this type of career path? If not are there other schools/routes you recommend?
Josh,
First off all I encourage you to do some more research and reading. ALL pilots who get paid are COMMERCIAL pilots. Whether it’s charter, cargo, corporate, scenic tours, flight instructing, banner towing, traffic watch, repo, and yes airline, if you’re getting paid, you’re a Commercial Pilot.
Now that we got that out of the way, I think what you’re saying is you don’t want to fly for the airlines? Regardless if you want to be a Commercial (aka professional) pilot you’ll need to get trained and earn the required licenses and ratings. With that in mind, there is no better route that ATP. While the airlines are the goal of most of ATP grads, the fact is many go on to other careers in flying and ATP has been training pilots fit these gigs for almost 40yrs.
Long short if you want to fly (and get paid), ATP is the way to go.
Adam
Josh,
I don’t know about you, but I can’t name any other flight school that has the type and amount of airline and charter/cargo partnerships like ATP Flight School…
The other thing is, in the upper left corner of the forum is a logo AirlinePilot.life and slightly below to the right is the ATP logo. This forum is sponsored by ATP, we’re not salespeople, but proof that if you trust the process and work hard, you can get to wherever your flying goals are. Not being bias or anything, but I looked at other schools like an Aeronautical Academy near me, Blueline Aviation, none sounded as appealing as ATP.
I recommend you do your research as to what is the best option for you. If you need loan servicing, ATP has a partner - SallieMae. If you’re looking for a convenient location, ATP has 82, I am sure there has to be one nearby. Maybe looking at fleet and aircraft maintenance, ATP has maintenance bases all over the states and takes delivery of aircraft almost on a monthly basis… in fact, they took delivery of 3 brand new Piper Archers in the last week. Take an Admissions Flight, do a tour of a training facility, get to know instructors/students firsthand and experience what it is like to be at ATP:
Brady
Josh,
No matter which type of flying you want to do, you still have to build your foundation the same way! Private through commercial multi, build time to 1500 hours and then get your ATP. Then you can decide if you want to go to a regional, LCC or a charter operation like Netjets, FlexJet, Flyexclusive, etc. You’ve got plenty of time to decide. Feel free to check out my schedules section while I flew for FlyExclusive. 
Hannah