Hello. I am a prospective student pilot looking to become an airline pilot or a pilot that flies private planes for individuals of company’s or families. I am in the process of looking for help with choosing schooling. I understand no matter what route I go it’s going to cost quite a bit of money. With that being said ATP seems like the quickest sure fire way to get to where I want to be. But there are cheaper, longer programs.
I guess my main question would be what have you (anyone willing to answer this question) choose for your training whether it be paying out of pocket or if you went with a program?
Another question would be if anyone has chosen ATP for school was it really worth it or if you know of others that have done it can you speak about their experience?
First off full disclosure. If you look up to the left you’ll clearly see the ATP logo. This is ATPs forum and all the mentors (incl myself) are former grads and instructors who went on to successful careers at the airlines. We’re not salesmen, nor do we receive any incentive to sign you up. We were however all in the same place you are now trying to decide on the best route to reach our goals and all of us are glad we went with ATP. With that out of the way, let’s answer your questions:
As I said above after doing my research I decided ATP was the best route. Why? Because at first I tried to train locally and pay as I went along. It took me almost 2yrs to get my PPL and that’s not because I’m a lousy pilot. Training part-time doesn’t work and even if you try and train full-time your local flight school doesn’t have the resources (airplanes and instructors) to make that happen. You fly day one and it’s great. You want to go up again a few days later but the weather is junk. Few days after that there’s no instructor available, few days after that there’s no airplane. The weather craps out again next time, next time the plane is out for maintenance, etc etc etc. Next thing you know it’s been 3 weeks since you went up and you need to relearn everything. Not very efficient and despite what people thing in most cases it ends up costing alot more money. There’s a reason the airlines and the military train their pilots daily. Because it works best and is most efficient. Further pilots have a finite amount of years we can fly. The longer you take the less of that top salary you’ll earn. With senior Capts earning over $400k+, losing a year will cost you considerably more than any money you might save.
Without question ATP was worth it for me and I honestly don’t believe I’d be where I am (a Capt at a Major) of it wasn’t for ATP. You see while there’s a pilot shortage right now and everyone with 1500hrs and a pulse is getting hired that wasn’t always the case. If fact when I completed my training just getting an interview required an act of congress. Thing was ATP was created by airline pilots to train airline pilots. The airlines were having trouble with new pilots washing out of training and realized ATP grads weren’t. Because of that ATP was able to pioneer the airline partnerships that are commonplace now. I got hired when many pilots I knew with considerably more time didn’t. Which is another reason to choose ATP. While getting hired is easy these days, getting through training is not. ATP doesn’t just get you through the process quickly, they prepare you for the pace of airline training which why ATP still has partnerships with virtually every airline in the country including their Direct Entry Program with Spirit and Frontier which can give you the opportunity to bypass the Regionals and go straight into the right seat of a Boeing or Airbus. Finally over 1,100 ATP grads were hired by airlines in the last 12mos alone.
Ultimately it’s up to you. Do your research but I know you’ll find there really is no better route to a career in aviation.
Adam answered your question well. My thoughts are very similar. I chose ATP because I wanted the structured training that would get me to my goal as efficiently as possible. I didn’t have the money to pay rating by rating so being able to finance my training made it all possible.
Upon program graduation, I transitioned seamlessly to a CFI position providing a means to build hours and start earning an income again. This took all the stress away from having to “find a job” with all these new ratings. Once I got settled in, I started thinking about the next steps and applying for cadet programs. Thats when I realized just how lucky I was to be in the ATP ecosystem. I had access to so many unique opportunities to get CJO’s from multiple carriers months in advance of any hiring mins.
I got from zero time to United, my dream airline, in 4 years. I still pinch myself because I can’t believe it’s all happened so quickly but I owe it all to ATP. Work hard, have a good attitude and enjoy the ride. It will get you where you want to go.