ATP Certificate Requirements
The eligibility list at 14 CFR 61.153, the experience at 61.159, the training program at 61.156, and the two seats at 121.436. Four sections, taken in the order they actually apply to you rather than the order they are numbered.
What Are The ATP Certificate Requirements?
14 CFR 61.153 is the general eligibility section and it is short. Be at least 23 years of age where the certificate is obtained under the experience requirements of 61.159, 61.161 or 61.163, or at least 21 where it comes under 61.160. Be able to read, write, speak and understand English. Be of good moral character.
Then paragraph (d): hold a commercial pilot certificate carrying an instrument rating issued under this part, or satisfy the military experience route at 61.73, or hold a qualifying foreign licence issued by a contracting State to the Convention on International Civil Aviation with no geographical limitations.
Then the tests. Paragraph (g) sends you to a knowledge test over the aeronautical knowledge areas at 61.155(c), and paragraph (h) to a practical test over the areas of operation at 61.157(e), both for the category and class you are seeking. Paragraph (f) requires the aeronautical experience before the practical test, and paragraph (e) puts the training program at 61.156 in front of the knowledge test.
In What Order Do These Requirements Actually Arrive?
Certificate and rating first, then the hours, then the training program, then the two tests. Nobody does the tests early, and the reason is written into 61.153 itself rather than being a matter of convention.
Paragraph (e) makes the graduation certificate from an airline transport pilot certification training program a precondition of applying for the knowledge test, and paragraph (f) makes the aeronautical experience a precondition of applying for the practical test. The sequence is not advice; it is the structure of the section.
The requirement people underestimate sits in front of the knowledge test rather than inside it. For an airplane multiengine class rating, 14 CFR 61.156 wants a substantial course delivered by an authorized training provider, and the equipment it specifies is not equipment a training school of this size holds.
What Experience Does 14 CFR 61.159 Require?
1,500 hours of total pilot time, itemised into five components. Paragraph (a)(1) wants 500 hours of cross-country time. Paragraph (a)(2) wants 100 hours of night flight time. Paragraph (a)(3) wants 50 hours inside whichever class of airplane the rating covers, and allows at most 25 hours of full flight simulator training toward it inside an approved course.
Paragraph (a)(4) wants 75 hours of instrument flight time in actual or simulated conditions, with credit for device time capped, and normally at 25 hours unless the training was conducted by a training centre certificated under part 142, in which case up to 50 hours may count.
Paragraph (a)(5) wants 250 hours in an airplane as pilot in command, or as second in command performing the duties of pilot in command while under the supervision of a pilot in command, or any combination, and inside that 250 it wants 100 hours of cross-country and 25 hours of night. Paragraph (a)(6) then caps the whole device contribution at 100 hours.
Which Of The Five Components Causes The Trouble?
Night first, then the class-of-airplane hours. The total looks after itself for anybody flying regularly; the components are what decide whether you are eligible on the day you expected to be.
The Five Figures, Set Out
Paragraph (a) opens at 1,500 hours of total pilot time and then itemises. The itemisation is the operative part, and every one of the five carries its own paragraph number so that you can check it rather than take anybody's word for it.
Two of the five appear twice at different scales. Cross-country appears as 500 hours at (a)(1) and again as 100 hours inside the 250 at (a)(5). Night appears as 100 hours at (a)(2) and again as 25 hours inside the same 250.
- 1,500 hours of total pilot time
- 500 cross-country, per (a)(1)
- 100 night, per (a)(2)
- 50 inside the class the rating covers, per (a)(3)
- 75 instrument, real or simulated, per (a)(4)
- 250 as PIC or supervised SIC, per (a)(5), holding 100 cross-country and 25 night
- Device credit capped at 100 hours by (a)(6)
The Component That Closes Late
Night. An instructor at a busy field accumulates daytime hours faster than almost anybody and night hours barely at all, because most training flights are scheduled in daylight and most students prefer it that way.
The correction is scheduling rather than money: deliberately taking night lessons, night cross-countries and evening currency flights from early on. It costs the same hours and it removes a constraint that otherwise appears with 1,400 hours already logged.
- 100 night hours at (a)(2)
- A further 25 inside the 250 at (a)(5)
- Instructing days are daylight days
- Cheap early, awkward late
The Component That Costs The Most To Fix Late
The 50 hours inside the class of airplane the rating covers. A pilot holding 1,500 single-engine hours who wants an airline transport pilot certificate with a multiengine class rating still has to fly 50 hours in twins, and twin hours are the dearest hours in general aviation.
This is why multiengine instructing matters disproportionately to anybody planning a multiengine airline transport pilot certificate. It is the one job that produces that specific category of time while paying rather than charging.
- 50 hours in the class the rating covers
- At most 25 of them from a full flight simulator
- An MEI produces the rest while paying
- Plan it at hour 200
What Part Of This Can A Flight School Actually Provide?
Everything up to the commercial certificate and the instructor rating, which is roughly the first 250 to 300 hours. After that the hours are earned rather than purchased, and the training program at 61.156 belongs to somebody holding a simulator we do not own.
Airline Career Track
Zero hours through private, instrument, commercial and multi-engine to a flight instructor rating. The prerequisite that 61.153(d)(1) will eventually want sits inside it.
- ✓Five phases under one number
- ✓Financing from $2,500 down
- ✓Nothing repriced at a phase boundary
- ✓No ATP CTP, and we claim none
Multi-Engine Add-On
The class rating that makes the 50 hours at 61.159(a)(3) reachable, and the prerequisite for teaching in twins afterwards.
- ✓No hour floor under 61.63(c)(3)
- ✓Ten to fifteen hours is typical
- ✓Fixed on the day you enrol
Instrument Rating
Required by 61.153(d)(1) ahead of an airline transport pilot certificate, and the start of the 75 instrument hours at 61.159(a)(4).
- ✓40 instrument hours under 61.65(d)
- ✓The 250 nautical mile IFR cross-country
- ✓Fixed on the day you enrol
Assessment Flight
One logged hour, counting toward the total and toward whichever components it qualifies for.
- ✓Sixty minutes of dual instruction
- ✓You do the flying
- ✓Credited whole if you enrol inside a day
What Is The ATP CTP, And Why Does It Sit Before The Written?
Because 61.153(e) puts it there. An applicant for an airline transport pilot certificate carrying an airplane multiengine class rating, or for a multiengine type rating taken concurrently with it, must present a graduation certificate from an authorized training provider before applying for the knowledge test.
The content is prescribed rather than left to the provider. Thirty hours of classroom instruction, containing at least 8 hours on aerodynamics including high altitude operations, 2 hours on meteorology including adverse weather phenomena and weather detection systems, 14 hours on air carrier operations, and 6 hours on leadership, professional development, crew resource management and safety culture.
Then 10 hours in a flight simulation training device qualified under part 60 and representing a multiengine turbine airplane. At least 6 of those must be in a Level C or higher full flight simulator representing a multiengine turbine airplane of 40,000 pounds maximum takeoff weight or greater, covering low energy states and stalls, upset recovery, and adverse weather including icing, thunderstorms and gusting crosswinds.
What Is The Order Of Operations From Here?
Six steps with a paragraph number behind each. The only one that is genuinely optional is the second, and skipping it is what makes the third unaffordable.
Commercial Certificate And Instrument Rating
14 CFR 61.153(d)(1) wants a commercial pilot certificate carrying an instrument rating issued under part 61, or one of the two alternatives at (d)(2) and (d)(3). This is the prerequisite that decides whether anything else on this page is available to you.
The Instructor Certificate
Not mentioned anywhere in 61.153 or 61.159, and the practical hinge of the whole plan. It is what turns the next twelve hundred hours from an expense into a wage.
The Hours, Watched By Component
1,500 total under 61.159(a), with the five components tracked separately from the first logbook entry. Night and cross-country are the two that run short; the class-of-airplane hours are the two that cost most to fix late.
The ATP CTP
14 CFR 61.156: 30 hours of academic instruction plus 10 hours in a flight simulation training device, at least 6 of them in a Level C or higher full flight simulator. Delivered by an authorized training provider under part 121, 135, 141 or 142, and normally after a conditional job offer.
The Knowledge Test, Then The Practical
61.153(g) sends you to a knowledge test over the areas at 61.155(c); 61.153(h) sends you to a practical test over the areas of operation at 61.157(e). The experience at 61.159 has to be complete before the practical test under 61.153(f).
Then The Seats, Which Are A Separate Question
14 CFR 121.436(b) wants the certificate plus an appropriate aircraft type rating before anybody serves as second in command. 121.436(a) wants a certificate free of the 61.167 limitations, a type rating, and 1,000 further hours before anybody serves as pilot in command.
Does An ATP Certificate Get You An Airline Job?
It makes you eligible for one seat and not the other, which is a different thing from making you employable. 14 CFR 121.436(b) requires an airline transport pilot certificate and an appropriate aircraft type rating for the airplane being flown before anybody serves as second in command.
The left seat is governed by 121.436(a) and it wants three conditions at once: an airline transport pilot certificate not subject to the limitations in 14 CFR 61.167, an appropriate aircraft type rating, and 1,000 hours in the roles the paragraph lists. Those roles include second in command under part 121 and pilot in command in certain operations under 91.1053(a)(2)(i) and 135.243(a)(1), or any combination of them.
A separate point this school will make plainly. Holding the certificate is a qualification, not an offer. Hiring depends on a labour market nobody here controls, and we publish no forecast of it, no placement claim and no relationship with any carrier, because we hold none of those things.
What Is Actually Inside The 40 Hours At 61.156?
Thirty hours of classroom instruction and ten hours in a device, with both halves itemised in the section rather than left to the provider. The equipment in the second half is why most flight schools cannot deliver it.
The Academic Half
Thirty hours of classroom instruction covering the subject areas 61.156(a) sets out, with a minimum number of hours attached to each of the four groups rather than a free allocation across them.
- Total30 hours of classroom instruction
- AerodynamicsAt least 8 hours, incl. high altitude
- MeteorologyAt least 2 hours
- Air Carrier OperationsAt least 14 hours
- Leadership And CRMAt least 6 hours
- Available HereNo
The Device Half
Ten hours in a flight simulation training device qualified under part 60 and representing a multiengine turbine airplane, of which at least six must be in a device of a specific and demanding class.
- Total Device Hours10
- Of WhichAt least 6 in a Level C or higher FFS
- RepresentingA multiengine turbine airplane, 40,000 lb MTOW or greater
- Remaining HoursIn a Level 4 or higher device
- Available HereNo
Where People Actually Do It
Typically an airline, as part of new-hire training, or a training centre holding a simulator of the class the section describes. Completing it after being hired rather than before is normal rather than unusual.
- Common ProviderAn airline or a training centre
- Authorised UnderPart 121, 135, 141 or 142
- Common TimingAfter a conditional job offer
- What We ProvideNothing toward it
- Why We Say SoThe omission would otherwise be assumed
Which Section Governs Which Requirement?
Six sections do all the work on this page. Knowing which one to open saves a great deal of arguing with people who have read a summary rather than a paragraph.
14 CFR 61.153
General eligibility: age, English, character, the prerequisite certificate, the training program, the experience, and the two tests.
14 CFR 61.159
Aeronautical experience for an airplane category rating. The 1,500 hours and the five components inside them.
14 CFR 61.160
The reduced totals with restricted privileges, and the 200-hour cross-country allowance at paragraph (e).
14 CFR 61.156
The airline transport pilot certification training program: 30 academic hours and 10 device hours, with the content of each specified.
14 CFR 61.167
Privileges and limitations, including the instruction privileges at (a) and the two prohibitions at (b).
14 CFR 121.436
Who may occupy which seat at a part 121 carrier, and the further 1,000 hours before command.
Why Is The Age 23 On One Route And 21 On Another?
Because 14 CFR 61.153(a) contains two subparagraphs rather than one. Subparagraph (a)(1) sets 23 years of age for a certificate obtained under the aeronautical experience requirements of 61.159, 61.161 or 61.163. Subparagraph (a)(2) sets 21 for one obtained under 61.160.
The two-year difference is easy to underrate. Airline careers are governed by seniority, seniority is a function of hire date, and a hire date two years earlier compounds across a whole career in a way that a few hundred hours does not. It is arguably the strongest argument for the reduced routes and it is rarely the argument anybody makes for them.
At the other end, 14 CFR 121.383(d) prevents a certificate holder from using anybody as a pilot on an airplane in operations under part 121 once they have reached their 65th birthday, and 121.383(e) says the same from the pilot's side. Neither has any bearing on training or on flying under other parts.
What Actually Determines How Long The Experience Takes?
Not the syllabus. How often you can fly, whether somebody else is paying, and whether the field cooperates. All three can be counted, and two of them are properties of a place.
Training Days A Year Measured At This Field
From NOAA ASOS observations across the year ending 1 August 2026, admitting a day only where the cloud base stood at 3,000 ft or better with 5 sm of visibility across four qualifying daylight hours. Over twelve hundred hours of instructing, this is the variable that moves the calendar most.
NOAA ASOS via the Iowa Environmental MesonetHours Inside The Class The Rating Covers, Per 61.159(a)(3)
The requirement most likely to be discovered late. A twin on the field, and an MEI who can teach in it, are what make those hours reachable without simply buying them at the end.
14 CFR 61.159(a)(3)Hours Of Flight Training One Instructor May Give In A Day
14 CFR 61.195(a) sets the ceiling, and a busy instructor is well under it on an average day. It is the most honest figure available for estimating how long the climb to 1,500 really takes.
14 CFR 61.195(a)Airframe Types On The Ramp
Cessna 162 Skycatcher, Piper Warrior, Piper Arrow II, Diamond DA20, Cirrus SR22 Turbo and Piper Seminole, owned rather than hired. Availability is what turns a plan into logged hours.
Inspected under 14 CFR 91.409(b)Airline Relationships This School Holds
None. No cadet program, no pathway agreement, no hiring arrangement, and no carrier named anywhere on this site.
Stated rather than impliedWhat Should You Check Before Building A Plan Around This?
Four things, and none of them is the total. Whether you hold, or can reach, the prerequisite at 61.153(d). Whether the class of airplane your intended rating covers is one you will realistically accumulate 50 hours in. Whether your night column is being watched from the first entry rather than the thousandth.
And whether the certificate is actually what you want. An airline transport pilot certificate is a qualification for a specific kind of operation, and a great many people who begin an airline plan discover somewhere around the commercial certificate that they preferred the flying they were already doing. That is not a failure and this page is not going to pretend it is.
Everything on this page came from the section text rather than a summary of it, and regulations move. Where this page and the current text disagree, the text is right. The paragraph numbers are here so that checking takes a minute.
What This Page Cannot Do For You
The ATP certificate sits at the end of the sequence Airline Pilot Flight School teaches, and it is issued by the FAA rather than by any flight school.
Predict hiring. The airline transport pilot certificate is a qualification and the job market is a separate thing entirely, moved by economics nobody at a flight school controls. We publish no forecast, no placement figure and no relationship with any carrier, because we hold none of them.
Provide the 61.156 training program. That requires a Level C or higher full flight simulator representing a multiengine turbine airplane of 40,000 pounds maximum takeoff weight or greater, which we do not own and do not claim to.
This is a part 61 flight training provider at Van Nuys Airport. It is not an airline, it is not owned by one, and there is no cadet program, pathway agreement or hiring relationship with any carrier. No pass rate and no graduate count is published here, because the operation is new and the sample would be too small to carry meaning.
What People Ask About The Certificate
Age 23 where the certificate comes under the experience requirements of 61.159, 61.161 or 61.163, or 21 where it comes under 61.160. The ability to read, write, speak and understand English. Good moral character. A commercial pilot certificate carrying an instrument rating issued under this part, or one of the two alternatives at (d)(2) and (d)(3). Then a knowledge test over the 61.155(c) areas and a practical test over the 61.157(e) areas of operation.
1,500 hours of total pilot time under 61.159(a), composed of 500 cross-country, 100 night, 50 inside whichever class of airplane the rating covers, 75 instrument in real or simulated conditions, and 250 flown as pilot in command or as supervised second in command, with 100 cross-country and 25 night inside that 250.
Twenty-three for a certificate obtained under 61.159, 61.161 or 61.163, and twenty-one for one obtained under the reduced experience requirements at 61.160. 14 CFR 61.153(a) is the paragraph, and the age difference is one of the more meaningful features of the reduced routes because it starts the seniority clock two years earlier.
In practice, yes. 61.153(d)(1) wants a commercial pilot certificate carrying an instrument rating issued under part 61, and the alternatives at (d)(2) and (d)(3) cover military experience under 61.73 and certain foreign licences. That prerequisite is why the airline transport pilot certificate is the fifth certificate or rating most people hold rather than the first.
The airline transport pilot certification training program required by 14 CFR 61.156 before the knowledge test covering an airplane multiengine class rating. It is 30 hours of academic instruction plus 10 hours in a flight simulation training device, of which at least 6 must be in a Level C or higher full flight simulator representing a multiengine turbine airplane of 40,000 pounds maximum takeoff weight or greater.
No. We do not run one and we do not hold the simulator 61.156 requires. Most pilots complete it through an airline as part of new-hire training, or through a training centre holding a simulator of that class, and it is normal for that to happen after a conditional job offer rather than before.
Night hours, followed by cross-country hours. Instructing produces very large quantities of daytime local flying, so a pilot can reach 1,400 total hours holding well under the 100 night hours at 61.159(a)(2). It is a scheduling problem rather than a money problem, and it is far cheaper to solve early.
Not on its own. 14 CFR 121.436(a) wants an airline transport pilot certificate free of the 61.167 limitations, an appropriate aircraft type rating, and 1,000 hours in the roles it lists, most often as second in command under part 121. The certificate opens the right seat; a further thousand hours opens the left.
Partly. 14 CFR 61.159(a)(4) requires 75 hours of instrument flight time in actual or simulated conditions and normally caps device credit at 25 hours, rising to 50 where the training was conducted in a course run by a training centre certificated under part 142. Paragraph (a)(6) then caps the whole device contribution to the aeronautical experience at 100 hours.
Within limits set by 61.167(a). A holder who has met the experience at 61.159, 61.161 or 61.163 and the age at 61.153(a)(1) may instruct other pilots in air transportation service in aircraft of the category, class and type they are rated for, and in simulators and flight training devices representing them. The aircraft must have functioning dual controls, and instruction is capped at 8 hours in any 24 consecutive hours and 36 hours in any 7 consecutive days.
Commercial certificate and instrument rating, then a flight instructor certificate, then instructing while deliberately arranging night and cross-country hours from the start. It is not the only route, but it is the only common one where somebody else pays for the airplane, and across roughly twelve hundred hours that difference is decisive.
For part 121 operations, yes. 14 CFR 121.383(d) prevents a certificate holder from using anybody as a pilot on an airplane in operations under that part once they have reached their 65th birthday, and 121.383(e) states the same restriction from the pilot's own side. It has no bearing on certificates, on training, or on flying conducted under other parts.
Keep Reading
The Rest Of This Cluster
The 1500 Hour Rule ExplainedRestricted ATP Under 61.160Building Flight Hours After CommercialThe Certificates Before It
Commercial Pilot License TrainingInstrument Rating TrainingMulti-Engine Rating CostThe 1,500 Hours Start With One, And The Composition Starts Now
Hour one counts toward the total and toward whichever component it qualifies for. Booking a night lesson early is worth more than most people realise, because night hours are the ones that close late. Enrol inside a day and the fee comes off the program.
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 →