What makes ATP unique?
An interview with Plane & Pilot Magazine, April, 2008

ATP’s training programs are designed to provide our students with the most focused and intense career pilot training available. Our philosophy is to deliver airline-style training and flight experience at the very onset of a pilot’s training career. Each training flight is coordinated and monitored in real time by ATP’s centralized flight dispatch department, ensuring maximum safety as students gain real-world experience flying across the entire United States. ATP’s Airline Career Pilot Program includes 140 hours of multi-engine flight training, and incorporates regional jet training taught by regional airline pilots. The combination of real-world flying, multi-engine experience, advanced regional jet training, and airline-like structure provides ATP students with a solid foundation for a successful airline career.

ATP is unique among flight schools because we quote an exact fixed-cost and complete our training program in 90 days from Private thru Commercial Multi with CFIs. We have placed more pilots with the regional airlines than any other single flight school, college, or academy. (Reference: ATP Airline Placements).

Beginning in 2009, ATP will begin taking delivery of 20 D-JETs and will be the first training academy to offer actual logged jet experience to career pilot students. The combination of the D-JET experience, multi-engine time, RJ program, and the structure and real world experience of the Career Pilot Program will ensure our students are the most competitive and experienced pilots entering the regional airline market.

ATP's management team draws from major airline and regional airline experience as both line pilots and training department check airmen. We understand the rigors of airline training and the realities of the airline industry. We structure our training programs to ensure our students are prepared to meet the demands of becoming an airline pilot.

Typical Costs—Ballpark from 0 time to airline interview.

ATP’s philosophy is to provide Career Pilot Training for a fixed cost in an accelerated time frame. Our 85-Hour Private Pilot And Intro to IFR takes 60 days and is designed to flow into the 90-Day Fast Track Airline Career Pilot Program. Both programs combined cost $66,490 and take a candidate from zero flight time thru Commercial Multi-Engine Instrument with Certified Flight Instructor Single-, Multi- and Instrument in 5 months.

Some of ATP’s regional airline partners are interviewing ATP Career Pilot graduates immediately upon completion of the program, so a Private Pilot and 90 Day Fast Track graduate can be interviewing in about 5 months from the time they begin their training.

Current enrollment status—Are our current enrollments increasing, decreasing, or staying flat?

Our current enrollments are stable at the highest levels in our 24 year history. Our current fleet of 141 aircraft is flying over 10,000 hours per month across 21 training centers nationwide. Despite the inevitable short-term fluctuations that always affect the airline industry, long-term demand for pilots will remain very strong. ATP is positioning for future growth by adding more Diamond, Cessna, and Piper aircraft to the fleet on a monthly basis.

What do you see the market doing in the near future and for the rest of 2008?

ATP’s primary market is the regional airline market. The regionals are subject to some of the same economic sensitivities that the majors and nationals are experiencing. While some have initiated a temporary reduction in their operations or hiring, others are still hiring aggressively and pursuing the same growth that has existed for the past several years.

It is impossible to predict what is going to happen on a day to day basis, but the long term forecast for the demand for pilots remains the same. Simply put, in the next 5 to 10 years there are more airplanes being produced worldwide than there will be pilots to fly them. With 10 published airline hiring letters of agreement, and numerous other pilot career outlets for ATP graduates, there will always be ample opportunities for our graduates to translate their training into careers in the shortest time possible.

What is our placement rate of our graduates? Where are they being placed? Regionals, corporate, etc.

ATP has the best airline placement record in the industry. This claim is backed up on our Airline Placements section of our web site. At the time of this writing, ATP has placed over 400 graduates with regional airlines in the last 12 months.

ATP has a staff dedicated to establishing and maintaining hiring partnerships with the industry’s leading regional airlines. With the successful track record of ATP graduates in airline training, the airlines come to ATP seeking our graduates. We currently have 10 published Letters of Agreement with leading regional airlines that enable our graduates to take advantage of guaranteed interviews upon completion of their training programs. In addition to our published LOA’s, ATP has relationships and an alumni network that consists of dozens of other airlines and flight departments. Our commitment to our students is to provide training that will enable them to capitalize on the appropriate opportunity for them. Today’s regional airline new hire classes have a higher concentration of ATP graduates on average than graduates from any other flight training academy.