US Carrier Announces Ab Initio Program

[LTCTerry]

What if...

ab initio

Isn't that simply Latin for "from the beginning?"


In the world of people who want to become airline pilots I tend to think of it as a person who signs up for 0-250 hours for commercial/instructor, but it actually would apply to someone walking in and saying, "I've wanted to fly all my life, now that I'm retired I have the time and money to do it."


OK, none of that matters. Here's what I would do in the modern world if I were going to recruit and train for my own airline-based ab initio program in the US:

1. Hire someone to screen initial applicants.

2. Train under FAR Part 141 timed to give a multi-engine commercial with King Air type rating at 190 hours.

3. Train to complete a frozen ATPL at 250 hours.

4. Complete Airbus type rating.

5. Coordinate with European partners with a reciprocal ownership stake to put "our" newly trained pilots into "our" jets overseas until they have ~1,500 hours.

6. Complete FAA ATP training.

Now you have a pilot meeting FAA qualifications for the right seat without 1,000 hours of traffic pattern time in a C-152 (that took three years to accumulate).

I don't know how big the European fATPL training market is, but I do recall reading that only one in five graduates will get a job in the cockpit. How many people graduate from these programs each year? I'll bet people would be mad, but 25 jetBlue pilots a year would likely barely be noticed.

Terry