Yes you can get an FAA ATP flying nothing bigger than a piper cub basically.
But, to fly for a -121 (airline) carrier, you need a Multiengine Land rating. And, with the new ATP requirements, you will need 50 hours of MEL time to get the ATP.
The US has never had a problem hiring qualified airline pilots.
In the summer of 2008, with HR depts at their most desperate (at the US regionals) Pinnacle and Mesa were hiring some pilots WITHOUT a Commercial License, and also some with less than 200 hours of Total Time.
Great: if you have flown 1500 hours in a crappy old Cessna and get one of those get a CPL in a week courses
The CPL won't help, as an ATP will be required, and the current requirements (other than Total Tiime) have been increased by Congress.
Someone who has built 1500 hours clearly wants to be in aviation and has probably learned a few things along the way, both about aviation and life. They will have a degree of maturity and won't need a silver spoonectomy.
That is what a lot of us were saying about the Colgan crash. Some pilots said they both had over 1500 hours (and the Capt had his ATP), so these changes wouldn't help at all. HOWEVER, if both of the two pilots had to get their ATP and all the hours required, BEFORE they joined an airline, they either would not have chosen to be pilots, OR, they would have been more motivated and would have built better professionalism along the way that would have prevented the crash...that is my opintion. The Colgan capt. actually started at Gulfstream Airlines, where you had to pay about $100,000 for your PPL/CPL/Instrument Airplane, and a certain number of hours of right seat experience as an FO flying a B-1900.
Could it be that a type rating is valid only for the airline you are flying for?
In the US a Type Rating is for a specific airplane certified type (as in DC-9 type in the US means DC-9, MD-80, MD-90 and B-717).
The ATP is for a Class: -MEL, -SEL, -Helicopter, etc.
Making pilots gain 1500 hours before such a task
It won't matter if they have 1500 hours or not. What matters is if they have the ATP. If they get 1500 hours of crappy experience, and they are not ready, they will not pass the ATP checkride. It is NOT easy, especially with the bare minimum experience required to sit for the practical exam.
The actual training is also identical, it does not matter if you fly an RJ or a B777 and the training requirements are absolutely the same. There are some few exceptions.
This is not true AT ALL, and this is an area where the ATP requirement WILL help. The training at Northwest and Delta, for example, is much, much better than the training at Trans States Airlines, USA Jet Airlines, or Atlas Air. They are ALL -121 carriers, and the training is quite different at each. When I trained at TSA they were NOT AQP, and USAJet/Atlas are not now on AQP either.
The FAA is 100% right. Wrong, This was pushed through by the pilot union, decrease supply and increase pay.
ALPA has been around a long time, and there had been no improvements in Flight/Duty/Rest or Airline Pilot Minimum Qualifications in decades.
This was pushed through by the families of the dead passengers on the Colgan flight, the Media that helped them, and the Congressmen/women when they listened to the CVR, and did some research on the sorry state of affairs at a crappy regional airlines in the US.
FAA faild to adress the dutytime and work rules,
The Flight/Duty/Rest Rules (for -121 passenger airlines) just changed DRAMATICALLY....and it was the first change since the 1950s or '60s.
I hope this helps the US a lot....it WILL help the non-American pilots, as there will be less US pilots going abroad for work.