The R-ATP Comes with Rules

College degrees do not guarantee automatic airline transport pilot certification.

Tuesday, December 27, 2022 at 02:39 PM ET

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Some graduates find this out the hard way, after they've spent $100,000 on an aviation degree from a two- or four-year program. [Credit: Pixabay/Elly]

Key Takeaways:

A college degree in aviation does not automatically qualify students for the Restricted Airline Transport Pilot (R-ATP) certificate with reduced flight hours.
To be eligible for the R-ATP at 1,000 or 1,250 hours, both the institution and its curriculum must be explicitly FAA-approved for the R-ATP program, evidenced by a Letter of Authorization (LOA).
Students attending schools without this specific FAA approval risk spending significant time and money only to discover they still require 1,500 flight hours for the ATP certificate, as exemplified by a lawsuit against the University of Memphis.
With airlines increasingly waiving degree requirements due to pilot shortages, aspiring pilots should verify R-ATP eligibility thoroughly and consider alternative career backup plans.

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Just as a college degree does not automatically guarantee a job, there are aviation students who are learning that a college degree does not automatically guarantee they qualify for the airline transport pilot (ATP) certificate with less than 1,500 flight hours.

The college or university curriculum has to be approved by the FAA and the school approved for the restricted ATP (R-ATP), which will lead to fewer hours needing to be acquired.