Dreaming of piloting for major airlines like Emirates or Qatar or even Delta or American Airlines? Your ticket to the cockpit might be closer than you think! FAA ATPL license could unlock doors to a rewarding career in international aviation, as well as some domestic US airlines.
What are the advantage of holding an FAA ATPL?
The FAA ATPL is a full, unrestricted ICAO license, recognized worldwide. This means you can fly for airlines across the globe. The main benefits of carrying an FAA ATPL are as following:
- Higher standards: FAA boasts rigorous training and safety regulations, ensuring pilots are equipped for any situation. Many foreign students from Asia, Europe, Africa and South America do their initial pilot training in the United States to ensure that they can prove to the future employers that they have gone through, and complied with the highest flight training standards in the World, in the country that invented modern aviation as we know it – the United States.
- No chance of corruption: Unlike flight training practices in many developing countries, FAA instructors and examiners are impossible to bribe. This anti-corruption culture is stalled into the FAA pilots from the day one of their flight training. Airlines around the world know that, and hold FAA pilots in high esteem, knowing that they have truly complied with all the rigorous FAA exam requirements, exactly in accordance with the PTS (practical test standards).
- Strong safety culture: United States’ aviation industry prioritizes safety, giving airlines confidence in FAA pilots’ skills. US has one of the lowest aviation accident records per-airplane in the World. US airline industry is one of the safest in the World, inventing and further developing such modern safety concepts as CRM (crew resource management), ASAP (Aviation Safety Action Program), ASRS (Aviation Safety Reporting System), SMS (Safety Management System), and so on – with the focus on aviation safety in all situations.
- Greater opportunities: Many leading airlines in the World, like Emirates, Qatar, Etihad, Cathay, Singapore, Malaysian, etc – favor pilots with licenses from developed, English-speaking countries such as the United States and Canada. Adding FAA ATPL to pilot’s resume would increase his/her chances of employment with the leading airlines and place them on top of the competition.
- Higher salaries: FAA ATP licenses often command higher salaries due to their prestige and safety reputation. FAA airline pilots get paid much higher wages than their foreign counterparts. Since many international airlines offer pilots negotiable salaries, having FAA ATPL as a a leverage in one’s negotiation tool-box could result in much higher annual earnings.
- Instant license verification: FAA is the only aviation authority that allows pilots access to the FAA certification and verification system called IACRA (Integrated Airman Certification and/or Rating Application) – a web-based platform that lets all FAA-certified pilots issue license verification letters to any aviation authority that may require it for the purposes of employment and license conversion. While all other aviation authorities take weeks of even months to verify their own licenses, FAA pilots take just minutes.
- No license expiration: when obtaining your FAA ATPL license through Aerocadet license conversion program, applicants get independent, standalone ATPL, which is issued on its own right, and not “on the basis of foreign license”. The FAA ATPL does not have expiration date, and will remain valid even when your original ICAO ATPL expires or becomes invalid or even suspended.
- Better License Protection: when pilots get into incidents or commit violations, their licenses may be subject to suspension and even revocation by the issuing aviation authority. However, the FAA licenses are protected by the Safety Reporting Systems, such as ASAP (airlines), which offer immunity from licenses suspension/revocation in exchange for honest incident or violation reports to the FAA. Such system can assure that the pilots gets to keep his/her license, even in case of severe, but non-intentional violations.
Who can convert?
Most pilots with valid, unrestricted ICAO ATPL licenses are eligible. However, restricted ATP licenses (from EASA, for example) aren’t recognized by the FAA as “ATPL” and can be converted to CPL level only. Pilots who want to convert must have at least 1500 hours of total flight time, an ICAO CPL or ATPL with multi-engine instrument ratings.
Specific requirements: Total flight time: 1,500 hours. (This includes all types of flying, both as pilot-in-command and non-PIC). Cross-country flight time: 500 hours. (Cross-country flight is defined as a flight of at least 150 miles from the point of departure, and it must include at least one landing at a point other than the departure point). Night flight time: 100 hours. (Night flight is defined as any flight conducted during the period from sunset to sunrise.) Instrument time: 75 hours. (This includes actual or simulated instrument flying). Pilot-in-command (PIC) time: 250 hours. (This is the time you have spent flying as the PIC, meaning you were solely responsible for the safe operation of the aircraft).
Meeting the flight time requirements can be achieved through various pathways, including the civilian aviation and military flying experience, including foreign military, as soon as your logbook is translated into English and printed-out in an easy to examine format (we recommend to use LogTen pro).
Additional requirements: You must be at least 23 years old. You must be able to pass the FAA Class 1 medical (see FAA medical requirements).
What is the fastest way to convert to FAA ATPL?
If you have an A320 or B737 type: The fastest and easiest way to convert your ICAO ATPL (or CPL) to FAA ATPL is by attaching a popular type-rating to the ATP license. For example, if you already have an ICAO ATPL with A320 type rating, the conversion process would take just 2 weeks and you would need to take one FAA ATPL written test (multiple-choice exam on a computer) followed by a short FAA ATP-CTP course (we will discuss this further), followed by an A320 refresher course and an ATP check-ride prep session in a class-D simulator, followed by the FAA ATPL + A320 TR check-ride. The resulting license will be a separate, standalone ATPL with an a320 type rating.
If you don’t have an A320 or B737 type: surprisingly, even if you do not have a type-rating on your license, it would still be faster and cheaper and more efficient to covert your non-type-rated ICAO ATPL to the type-rated FAA ATPL. The most popular TR is the A320 PIC type. The process of conversion would be the same as described above: the conversion process would take just 3 weeks and you would need to take one FAA ATPL written test (multiple-choice exam on a computer) followed by a short FAA ATP-CTP course, followed by a full A320 type-rating course and an ATP check-ride prep session in a class-D simulator, followed by the FAA ATPL + A320 TR check-ride. Again, the resulting license will be a separate, standalone ATPL with an a320 type rating.
If you don’t have a multi-engine rating: this complicate things, but we are willing to with with you an attach the AMEL rating to your single-engine CPL or ATPL before we proceed with the main conversion program, as described above. At the moment, our surcharge for ten hours of multi-engine add-on training is just $5000.00 USD.
What about conversion from FAA ATPL to TCCA (Canada) ATPL?
Amazingly, the United States and Canada have a special reciprocating agreement in place which allows pilots to convert their standalone FAA ATPL to TCCA ATPL just by taking a single air-law exam and TCCA Class 1 medical. The whole process takes 2 days and costs the total of $300 USD. Just bear in mind, that this conversion requires the FAA ATPL to be standalone, this means, it can not be marked as “issued on the basis of foreign license”. Aerocadet’s FAA ATPL conversion program issues a standalone ATP license.
Will the FAA type-rating convert to Canadian ATPL?
Yes. All the FAA ratings, including type-ratings, will be recognized by the Canadian aviation authority and transcribed into your new TCCA ATPL license.
How much will the whole conversion cost?
We change pricing seasonally, and we always publish it on our website, on the conversion program page. Please go to the conversion page, then scroll down to “Cost” section and review the pricing break-down.
How do I enroll?
Easy. Just go to the Conversion Program page. If you are on a desktop, click on the “Start Enrollment” tab on the right. If you are using a mobile devise, scroll down to the end of the main program outline section and click on the “Start Enrollment” tab.
Questions? Schedule your free consultation call today!
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About the Author:
Russ Sherwood is an airline captain and a line check pilot at a major US airline flying the A320/321 fleet. He has logged over 9000 flight hours and holds airline, commercial and flight instructor pilot licenses issued by the FAA (US), CAAC (China) and DGCA (Indonesia). Russ is also a lead aviation career development consultant for Aerocadet.