Originally Posted by
rudestuff
Read part 61. You don't need 250 hours in an airplane, you need 250 hours as PIC in an airplane. You could go straight to commercial add-on, but you need 50 hours PIC for that which would need to be solo. The cheapest option would be to get a private (20 hours dual) then count everything else as PIC. You'll need 270 hours airplane to get ATP. Do you need ATP or would a CPL suffice?
The sensible route would be to get CPL/IR (a) get a FW job or (b) CPL/IR and CFI - then build the time on somebody else's dime. No idea why I just quoted myself!