Airline pilot flight hour requirements
Every hour figure on the route, in one place, with the paragraph that sets it. Most pages give you 1,500 and stop. The useful information is the composition underneath it, because total time takes care of itself and the sub-categories are what people arrive short on.
Airline pilot hour requirements — what are they?
1,500. That is the total time 14 CFR 61.159(a) attaches to an airline transport pilot certificate with no restriction on it, and 61.160 lowers the floor to 750, 1,000 or 1,250 for specific qualifications. Inside the 1,500 sit four components: cross-country at 500, night at 100, class of airplane at 50, instrument at 75. Those four are what trips people. The headline never does.
The distinction worth holding onto is between a floor and a composition. Total time accumulates on its own once you are flying for a living. Cross-country and night time do not, because the flying that pays is mostly local and mostly daytime. Instructors regularly arrive at 1,300 hours with a night column nowhere near closed, and then spend months manufacturing what a little scheduling would have produced for free.
The second thing worth understanding is that the ladder below the ATP has its own hour requirements that overlap only partly. A commercial applicant needs 250 hours under 61.129(a), and inside that sits its own set of components. An instrument applicant needs the experience at 61.65(d). Those are not merely stepping stones toward 1,500; they are separate boxes that have to be ticked in their own right.
Everything below is quoted against the paragraph that sets it, because the alternative is a number without a source and this industry has enough of those.
What are the hour requirements at each certificate?
Four sets, ascending. Each one names the paragraph, and each one lists the components inside the headline figure rather than just the figure.
Private pilot certificate — 61.109(a)
40 logged hours, for an airplane single-engine class rating. Set against that figure, 61.109(k)(1) permits at most 2.5 hours taken in a simulator or a flight training device. A course run by a training centre certificated under part 142 lifts that allowance to 5 hours, and (k)(3) then drops the overall total to 35.
Almost nobody finishes at 40. AOPA gives a national average of 50 to 70 hours, and where you land inside that is decided mainly by how often you fly.
- 40 logged hours under 61.109(a)
- 2.5 hours creditable from a device
- 5 hours where a part 142 course applies
- Nationally 50 to 70 hours in practice, per AOPA
Instrument rating — 61.65(d)
Four components. Fifty cross-country hours flown as pilot in command, ten of those in an airplane. Forty hours in actual or simulated instrument conditions, fifteen of them received from an authorised instructor. Three hours of instrument training with an instructor in an airplane, taken inside the two calendar months that precede the practical test. And one instrument cross-country of 250 nautical miles along airways, with an approach at every airport and three different kinds of approach flown.
Device limits matter here. At 61.65(h)(2) the allowance is 20 hours in a simulator or a flight training device, rising to 30 under part 142. At 61.65(i) it is 10 hours from a basic aviation training device or 20 from an advanced one. And 61.65(j) then caps the whole combination at 20 hours outside the part 142 case.
- Fifty cross-country hours, pilot in command
- Ten of those flown in an airplane
- Forty hours instrument, actual or simulated
- Fifteen of those from an instructor
- Three hours inside two calendar months of the test
- One 250 nautical mile instrument cross-country
Commercial pilot certificate — 61.129(a)
250 hours of flight time, for an airplane single-engine class rating, with four groups inside it. A hundred hours flown in powered aircraft, fifty of those being airplanes. A hundred hours as pilot in command, fifty of them in airplanes, and fifty of them cross-country with ten or more in airplanes. Twenty hours of training across the areas of operation, of which ten are instrument training and ten are flown in a complex airplane, a turbine-powered one, or a technically advanced one. And ten hours flown solo, or performing pilot-in-command duties with an authorised instructor aboard.
- 250 hours of flight time
- A hundred hours in powered aircraft
- A hundred hours as pilot in command
- Twenty hours of training across the areas of operation
- Ten of those instrument, ten complex or technically advanced
- Ten hours solo, or performing pilot-in-command duties
Airline transport pilot certificate — 61.159(a)
1,500 hours, counted as total time flown as a pilot. Cross-country accounts for 500 of them. Night accounts for 100. Fifty must be flown in the class of airplane the rating covers, and 75 in instrument conditions, actual or simulated. A separate component asks for 250 hours in an airplane as pilot in command, or as second in command under supervision, and inside that 250 sit a hundred cross-country hours and twenty-five at night.
Device credit is constrained throughout. No more than 25 hours of the class-of-airplane component may be taken in a full flight simulator inside an approved course, and the instrument component is similarly limited, with a larger allowance where the training was accomplished under part 142.
- 1,500 hours of total time
- 500 of them cross-country
- 100 of them at night
- 50 in the class of airplane
- 75 instrument, actual or simulated
- 250 as pilot in command in an airplane
What are the restricted ATP hour requirements?
Three floors below 1,500, each attached to a specific qualification, all set out in 14 CFR 61.160. Every one of them still requires 200 hours of cross-country time under 61.160(e) rather than the 500 that 61.159(a)(1) asks of the standard route.
Military — 61.160(a)
The lowest floor in the section, available to a United States military pilot or former military pilot able to produce the documentation the paragraph requires.
- Total time750 hours
- Cross-country200 hours
- Minimum age21, per 61.153(a)
Bachelor’s degree, aviation major — 61.160(b)
Requires an institution of higher education holding FAA authorisation and sixty semester credit hours of aviation coursework, with a commercial certificate and an instrument rating already held.
- Total time1,000 hours
- Credit hours60 semester hours
- Cross-country200 hours
Associate degree, or partial bachelor’s — 61.160(c) and (d)
Thirty semester credit hours of aviation coursework at an authorised institution reaches the same floor by either of two routes.
- Total time1,250 hours
- Credit hours30 semester hours
- Route (d)Fewer than 60, at least 30
The limitation attached
61.160(g) subjects a certificate obtained under the section to pilot-in-command limitations. It is a genuine certificate with a genuine constraint, and the constraint lifts on reaching the full 61.159(a) experience.
- ConstraintPilot in command, per 61.160(g)
- Lifts at1,500 hours
- Unrestricted age23, per 61.153(a)
Which of these hours do you pay for?
Roughly the first 250 to 300. Everything past a commercial certificate and a flight instructor rating is earned rather than bought, and that boundary is the single most useful line to draw on any airline career plan.
Airline Career Track
Every phase from the first logged hour to a flight instructor rating, priced once and fixed at the point of enrolment.
- ✓Five phases under a single number
- ✓Financing from $2,500 down
- ✓No repricing at a phase boundary
- ✓Part 61 from start to finish
Private Pilot — Comprehensive
Sixty hours in the logbook: fifty-five airborne, five in the box, fifty flown dual, plus ten hours of ground school.
- ✓60 hours logged
- ✓5 simulator sessions
- ✓10 hours of ground school
- ✓Books and materials included
Instrument Rating
Phase two of the career route, and the rating that changes how you fly more than any other single step.
- ✓40 instrument hours under 61.65(d)
- ✓An IFR cross-country of 250 nautical miles
- ✓Fixed at enrolment
Multi-Engine Add-On
The class rating that opens twin-engine flying, and later the ability to instruct in one.
- ✓No hour floor under 61.63(c)(3)
- ✓Ten to fifteen hours is typical
- ✓Fixed at enrolment
What decides how quickly the hours accumulate?
Two of the five below are properties of a field rather than of a person, and both are measurable. Over 1,200 hours the difference between a 355-day field and a 277-day one is measured in years.
Airframe types on the ramp, owned rather than brokered
Cessna 162 Skycatcher, Piper Warrior, Piper Arrow II, Diamond DA20, Cirrus SR22 Turbo and Piper Seminole. The airplanes belong to the operation, so the maintenance calendar is ours and not a lessor’s.
Inspected under 14 CFR 91.409(b)Instructors working here
Each carries a commercial certificate or an ATP beneath, an instructor certificate above it, and a medical in date. You are matched with one of them, and you may ask for another if the fit is wrong.
14 CFR 61.183 · 61.23 · 61.195Training-capable days measured across twelve months at this field
Counted from NOAA ASOS observations for the year ending 1 August 2026, admitting a day only where the ceiling held at 3,000 feet with five statute miles of visibility across four qualifying daylight hours.
NOAA ASOS via the Iowa Environmental MesonetA session in the full-motion simulator
Two of those sessions sit inside the Standard and the Premium private pilot programs and five inside the Comprehensive, and weather never takes one away.
Published, not quoted on requestProgram prices withheld until you enquire
None. Every program figure is printed on the site, nothing is offered as a spread, and the price you sign for is the one you read.
Stated rather than impliedWhich hours are hardest to get?
Night first, then cross-country, and both for the same reason. Paid flying at a general aviation airport is mostly local and mostly daylight, so the two components the ATP asks most of are the two that instructing produces least of.
61.159(a)(2) wants 100 hours at night, and a further 25 night hours sit inside the 250-hour pilot-in-command component. A normal instructing day starts mid-morning and finishes before dark, because that is when students book. The fix costs nothing: take evening students, teach the night cross-country phases, and treat availability after dark as an asset instead of an inconvenience.
61.159(a)(1) wants 500 hours of cross-country. Local training flights contribute none of it, and a syllabus is mostly local training flights. Teaching the cross-country phases of the private and commercial courses helps disproportionately, and the commercial syllabus contains long trips by design.
The expensive one is 61.159(a)(3), which wants 50 hours in the class of airplane the rating covers. For a multiengine airline transport pilot certificate that means twins, and buying 50 hours of twin time at the end of the process is the most costly way to close any gap on this page. Teaching in twins generates the same time while paying, which is the strongest practical argument for a multi-engine instructor rating and rarely the argument people give for it.
A position. Track the sub-categories from your first paid hour, not from 1,200. Everybody who leaves it late says the same thing afterwards, and it is entirely free to avoid.
What this page does not claim
Reaching an hour figure is not the same as being hired. No airline is named on this site, no cadet program, pathway agreement or hiring relationship exists with any carrier, and no interview, job or salary is guaranteed. No package for accumulating hours is sold here and no instructing position is promised to anybody who trains here. The figures above are the current text of the regulations and regulations move.
Airline Pilot Flight School trains under part 61 of 14 CFR, at Van Nuys Airport. It is not an airline, it is not owned by one, and no carrier holds a cadet program, pathway agreement or hiring arrangement with us. We do not guarantee an interview, a job or a salary.
No pass rate, no graduate count and no rating of any kind is published on this site. The operation is new, any such figure would come from a sample too small to mean anything, and inventing one is the easiest lie available in this industry. What is published instead is the syllabus, the price, the hours and the regulation behind each requirement.
Questions about the hour requirements
1,500, as total time as a pilot, which is what 14 CFR 61.159(a) attaches to an airline transport pilot certificate carrying no restriction. Cross-country accounts for 500 of them, night for 100, the class of airplane for 50 and instrument conditions for 75. Reduced floors of 750, 1,000 and 1,250 sit at 61.160 for specific military and academic qualifications.
At 61.159(a)(1) the 500-hour figure is the biggest single component, and local training flights contribute nothing to it. Teaching the cross-country phases of a private or commercial syllabus produces it in quantity, which is why instructors who plan for it arrive at 1,500 with the column closed and those who do not arrive short.
100 hours of night flight time under 14 CFR 61.159(a)(2), plus a further 25 night hours inside the 250-hour pilot-in-command component. Because instructing days are daytime days, this is the component most often left unfinished, and it is fixed by scheduling rather than by spending.
250 hours of flight time, set by 14 CFR 61.129(a) where the rating sought is airplane single-engine. Inside that: a hundred hours in powered aircraft, a hundred as pilot in command, twenty hours of training across the areas of operation, ten of them instrument and ten in a complex or technically advanced airplane, plus ten hours flown solo or performing pilot-in-command duties.
40 logged hours under 14 CFR 61.109(a) for an airplane single-engine class rating, of which up to 2.5 may come from a simulator or flight training device under 61.109(k)(1). AOPA gives a national average of 50 to 70 hours, and tempo is the main thing that moves it.
Only in limited ways. 61.159(a) constrains how much of the class-of-airplane and instrument components may come from a simulator or a flight training device, with a larger allowance where training was accomplished under part 142. Simulators are excellent for skill and poor for total time, and it is worth being clear which problem you are solving.
750 hours for a United States military or former military pilot under 61.160(a); 1,000 hours where an aviation-major bachelor’s degree carries sixty semester credit hours of aviation coursework, under 61.160(b); and 1,250 hours through 61.160(c) or (d) with thirty credit hours. All of them require 200 hours of cross-country under 61.160(e).
Because for a multiengine certificate it means 50 hours in twins, and twin time bought at the end of a career plan is the most costly hour on this page. Teaching in twins produces the same time while paying rather than charging, which is the practical case for a multi-engine instructor rating.
No. There is no discounted time-building block on this site, no rate card for aircraft hire, and no package that claims to take you to 1,500 hours. What is sold here is training to a commercial certificate and a flight instructor rating; everything after that is earned.
About two years for most people, and it depends on how many hours a week you can be paid to fly and how often the weather allows it. 14 CFR 61.195(a) caps a flight instructor at eight hours of flight training in any twenty-four consecutive hours, and most work well below that on an ordinary day.
Where to go next
The certificates underneath
Pilot certificates and ratings in orderCommercial pilot license requirementsInstrument rating requirementsThe first 250 hours are bought; the next 1,250 are earned
Nothing on this page after a commercial certificate is something a school can sell you. What is for sale is the training that reaches the paid part sooner, and it begins with one logged hour.
Fly the aeroplane once, then decide
The assessment flight is the first hour of the syllabus and a two-way evaluation. You fly it from the left seat with an instructor beside you, they write down what they saw, and you get an honest read on whether the plan is realistic. It is loggable, and it is credited in full against enrolment if you enroll within 24 hours.
What happens on an assessment flight →