Textron Aviation and ATP Flight School reached an agreement under which ATP will acquire 40 Cessna Skyhawks, with deliveries beginning in 2026.
The companies said the aircraft will add to ATP’s existing training fleet of nearly 225 Skyhawks, which are deployed at more than 85 training facilities across the U.S. The arrival of the new aircraft will help ATP maintain a modern fleet with up-to-date equipment.
The recent agreement marks the fourth fleet purchase by ATP’s Airline Career Pilot Program in just over a year, totaling 135 Skyhawks. The purchases reflect the company’s long-term plans to build the capacity to train 20,000 airline pilots by 2030.
“For over six decades, the legendary Cessna Skyhawk has inspired the next generation of pilots and served as the world’s leading flight trainer,” said Chris Crow, Textron’s vice president of piston aircraft sales. “We are delighted to continue our long-standing relationship with ATP and provide their students access to the most produced single-engine aircraft globally.”
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The Cessna Skyhawk’s design dates to 1955, and since then it has become a staple training aircraft. ATP said the current Skyhawk’s forgiving flight characteristics, reliability, and Garmin G1000 NXi avionics have made it the company’s “trusted training platform” for the past three decades.
“With already one of the youngest, most modern fleets at scale, the firm orders for 135 Skyhawks are for direct fleet growth, not replacement,” said Michael Arnold, ATP’s vice president of marketing. “Over the next three years, ATP will be expanding its Cessna fleet by 60 percent and delivering over 40 new state-of-art planes to ATP students each year through 2026.”
