ATP Flight School - Worth the costs?

[Nelien]

I plan on taking up my flight career in USA (living in Sweden at the moment) and I have been looking for good flight schools.

One of these schools is ATP Flight School (http://www.atpflightschool.com/) which in appearance (and by recommendation) seems like a very good school. The only drawback is that their Airline Programme (http://www.atpflightschool.com/airline_training_programs/airline_career_pilot_program/index.html) is quite expensive compared to individual courses to the same certificate in other schools.

The course have everything included, even housing (although I wouldn't really need that..) and so it seems it's a reasonable price, but I would like to hear from some more experienced pilots. Is the cost far higher than it would cost doing the courses individually at other schools? Are the costs worth it either way?

It has the advantage that it supposedly gets you in the industry after as little as 60 + 90 days (PPL + Airline Programme), which is always a good thing.

Thank you in advance for the replies.

/Jakob

[Assad Spaceship2]

Hi, I am in the same situtation as you are. I do hope someone gets to clear those doubts. Being like most of us, limited in finance, I do want to spend my time and money wisely.

[B2N2]

ATP is for US citizens only.
At least their career program is, from their website:

For the Airline Career Pilot Program
Private Pilot Certificate
85 Hours Total Time
25 Hours Cross-Country PIC Time
First Class Medical Certificate
2 Years of College or Equivalent Work Experience
Must be a U.S. Citizen
These prerequisites must be met prior to the class start date, if not prior to scheduling.

[Nelien]

Does having a Green Card validate as being a U.S. Citizen? I'm not so clear about those terms but I will have no problem getting a Green Card as my father will be moving to the US and thus can arrange a family member Green Card for me.

Actually the official word on "citizenship" can be found here, http://www.uscis.gov/naturalization , but in common word maybe referring to U.S. Citizen also means a person with a valid Green Card.

[B2N2]

US residency = Greencard
US Citizenship = US passport

There are better programs out there then ATP.

[Nelien]

There are better programs out there then ATP.Care to elaborate? Isn't ATP the program to choose if you want to fly for an airline? Or do you also mean there are better jobs flying than flying for an airline?

EDIT: Ooops, now I understand you mean ATP as in ATP Flight School not the actual certificate. In that case ignore this post.

[weasil]

I cannot offer any input on the citizenship requirement of ATP but I can speak to the quality of training. At a previous airline I was an instructor on the CRJ. The company would hire pilots from varying career paths including freight guys, night haulers, VFR caribbean pilots, instructors etc... the best students I ever had bar none were those who came through the program at ATP. The Director of Training at my old company would actively recruit guys who had completed the ATP program or the CAE program - both of which had an airline prep course designed for flying RJ's because these guys had the highest success rate in initial training. This is just my personal experience - I do not work for ATP or know anybody who does and have never trained there myself so take this for what it is worth. Just one guy's opinion.