Pathway to FAA ATP
for ICAO CPL holders

Why enroll with AeroCadet?

• Strategic Approach: AeroCadet understands that simply having the minimum required pilot licenses is not enough to secure a position with top aviation companies. They emphasize the importance of standing out and being unique among other candidates. AeroCadet provides a strategic approach to help pilots differentiate themselves and make a lasting impression on airline recruitment teams.

• Comprehensive Support: AeroCadet offers a personalized team of strategists, career mentors, and airline employment consultants who provide invaluable guidance and support throughout the pilot's career journey. These experts offer insights, advice, and mentoring to help pilots enhance their experience, knowledge, qualifications, and employment references, setting them apart from the competition.

• Industry Knowledge: With their deep understanding of the aviation industry, AeroCadet is equipped to provide pilots with up-to-date information on airline hiring standards and requirements. This knowledge helps pilots align their efforts effectively and efficiently to meet these standards and increase their chances of securing their dream job.

• Career Development: AeroCadet is committed to the long-term success of pilots in the competitive world of commercial aviation. They provide career development resources and assistance to ensure pilots are well-prepared and positioned for growth opportunities in their aviation careers.

• Prestigious Airline Opportunities: By enrolling with AeroCadet and benefiting from their expertise, pilots can increase their chances of receiving job offers from prestigious airlines. AeroCadet's insights and support can help aspiring pilots fulfill their dreams of working for the world's leading aviation companies.

As a leading aviation training and airline pilot career development consulting agent serving the largest international market, AeroCadet offers a tailored approach, expert support, and valuable industry knowledge to help pilots maximize their potential, stand out from the crowd, and achieve their desired career goals in the aviation industry.

Why holding a commercial pilot license will not land you an airline job?

Let's face the truth: the top airlines have high pilot recruitment standards that go beyond the basic qualifications of a newly-graduated commercial pilot. The goal for student pilots is to attain the necessary flight time, licensing, and aeronautical experience to become employable by these airlines, which means gaining an edge over the vast applicant pool competition, not just satisfying the basic legal commercial pilot qualification requirements.

Most international student pilots aim for first officer positions with prestigious passenger carriers such as Emirates, Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways, Cathay Pacific, Eva Air, AHK, Fly Dubai, ANA, and more. These airlines hire pilots from diverse citizenship and ethnic backgrounds on multi-year contracts. However, securing these coveted positions requires meeting specific requirements that newly-graduated commercial pilots may not fulfill.

These requirements typically include holding a full, unrestricted Airline Transport Pilot License (ATPL) issued by a recognized ICAO member state. Preferably, the license should be from a developed, English-speaking country like the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and others. This ensures a high level of English language proficiency, which airlines consider crucial. It also helps verify that the pilot has acquired their qualifications legitimately and not through fraudulent means, which unfortunately can be an issue in some developing countries' flight training industry.

Furthermore, significant aeronautical experience is necessary, usually exceeding 1500 flight hours, with a balanced combination of propeller and turbine/jet flight time. For a newly-graduated CPL holder with only 200 hours of flight time, achieving these qualifications and experiences can be a significant challenge, considering the high cost of acquiring flight hours. This is why many new pilots face the dilemma of gaining the required transitional aeronautical experience, leading them to search for underpaid and potentially risky jobs like bush-flying or banner-towing. Some even give up on their aviation dreams in frustration and let their pilot licenses expire, seeking employment in other industries. However, there are alternatives to this discouraging path.

Aerocadet, with its team of consultants who are experienced current (or retired) airline pilots, has developed fully-integrated flight training and internship programs to address this transitional experience challenge. These programs offer a comprehensive solution, taking students from zero experience or any other level they have already achieved to obtaining a full FAA (United States) and TCCA (Canada) ICAO Airline Transport Pilot Licenses. In the process, students gain valuable propeller and/or turbine experience, meeting the pilot recruitment requirements of major airlines that hire contract pilots for long-term, well-paid positions.

By providing a structured training program and internship opportunities, AeroCadet equips its students with the qualifications and experience necessary to stand out and succeed in the competitive airline job market.

How does this program achieve Your objectives?

The PA-ATP program is unique: a very few flight training facilities in the World offer a full Airline Transport Pilot License program because it requires at least 1500 hours of flight time in various flight regimes. However, we are able to offer you this program because our FTP is an accredited by the FAA flight academy which has a special permission from the USCIS to issue our students not just a regular flight training visa (M-1) but a full academic visa (F-1). Such visa allows our students to study and, after the achievement of CPL and CFI licenses, undergo structured pilot internships as certified flight instructors in the United States and a commercial turbine pilot, regardless of their country of citizenship. In contrast, a regular flight student M-1 visa does not effort any internship opportunities. The F-1 visa internships allow our graduates to build enough flight time to qualify for a full, unrestricted FAA/ICAO Airline transport Pilot License. Yes, a real deal. Not a "Frozen" ATPL (which is just another form of a basic 200-hour CPL), not a "Restricted" ATPL (again it's just a fancy name for a basic CPL), but a full, unrestricted ATPL. The one that the World airlines actually want their pilots to have at the recruitment events and career fares. The one that comes with the real-life employment experience, employer recommendation letters, safety records, etc - all serving as proof that some other companies have already entrusted this pilot with expensive airplanes and priceless lives and he or she did not disappoint. This is the assurance that the world-class airlines want from the resumes of the pilots they are looking to hire.

More and over, our advanced pilot internship partners are able to conditionally offer U.S. and international commercial pilot internship options to all our graduates in order to ensure that students continue developing their aviation careers and widen their aeronautical experience thus becoming more competitive on the current airline employment market. This is why, upon completion of all the internships offered to our students, our company guarantees comprehensive airline employment placement program for pilots who want to work in the leading airlines based in the Middle East, South-East Asia, Central America and Europe.

Want to stay and work in the leading US airlines earning record-high salaries? There is an opportunity to do so under the EB-1 visa program for international student graduates. Learn how to stay in the US airlines permanently after completing flight training and internship program with Aerocadet here >>>

This program is structured in such a way that every segment leads our students to the ultimate goal: employment in the airlines. The program is divided into the following stages:

Total duration of the program is approximately two years, including flight instructor internships in the United States, which takes about 18 months, and not including Structured internship International as ferry pilot, which is limited to 18 months (Option 7B). All stages of license conversion, flight training and internships are provided in the United States to a very high standard by an accredited flight academy "Pelican Flight Training" and "PanAm" in Florida; flight instructor internship options are provided by Pelican Flight Training, Global Air Holdings, and other affiliates. After the completion of flight training phases, student will be offered internship as a flight instructor and an ability to build a very important to his/her career development flight time. After pilot achieves 1500 hours of flight time, student will be able to obtain his/her full, unrestricted FAA/ICAO Airline Transport Pilot License and proceed with the option 1 (7A) or option 2 (7B) - either working as a first officer at the target airlines, continue building flight hours as an international ferry pilot in Hong Kong. This internships will allow students to continue gaining valuable experience working as a professional pilots and building more complex turbine and cross-country flight time. The main program objective is to provide our graduates with the permanent airline employment placement with the world-class industry leaders such as Fly Dubai, Emirates, Qatar, Cathay Pacific, Air Asia, Lion Air, Singapore Airlines, Air China, Chinese Airlines, Air Hong Kong, Malaysian Airlines, Jet Star, Tiger Air and many more.

More details about the program and its phases:

At this phase student will be required to complete enrollment application form (here >>>)  and provide documents for initial consideration by our company. After application details and document screening, student will be contacted for the initial interview to check his/her knowledge of English. Our requirements are simple: ICAO CPL with valid medical, ICAO-4 English certificate, high school diploma (or higher), IELTS Academic 6.0 or higher, international passport and good health with no disqualifying conditions (see full list of enrollment requirements here >>>) Once all requirements are satisfied, student will be furnished with the flight training agreement, visa support paperwork, preliminary aviation training study materials and TSA security clearance. 

After arrival in the United States at our flight training center, called "Pelican Flight Academy" a student will undergo a short FAA Class I pilot medical. After this, student will start his/her theoretical and practical standardization training. Our goal is to ensure that, no matter what country issued your CPL and to what standards you were trained with your previous flight academy, we will ensure to bring your flying skills and theoretical knowledge to the required and demanding FAA commercial pilot licensing standards. This training phase takes 3-5 weeks, depending on the amount of work each pilots requires for the FAA standardization.

Students will then proceed to obtaining their Certified Flight Instructor license with multi-engine and single-engine ratings. This is necessary to facilitate the internship phase of our program which will allow low-hour pilots to work as commercial pilot flight instructors and start building valuable flight time towards their ATPL license, as well as get paid for their work. Providing that the candidate holds both single- and multi-engine ratings on his ICAO CPL license, this phase should take 4-6 months. Those candidates who do not hold either of these ratings, the training duration may take longer. Please review the Tuition Cost section of this program (scroll down) to find out how much the rating add-ons cost.

Student, and at this point - a fully-qualified FAA commercial pilot and a flight instructor with single- multi- and instrument ratings on his CFI license, will be offered a guaranteed opportunity to work as a flight instructor in our academy under the CPT (Curricular Practical Training) program using the unique F-1 visa employment permit benefits. During this period, student may obtain up to 500 hours of additional flight time. Approximately 25% of this flight time will be conducted on multi-engine aircraft. All of the flight time will be logged as PIC (Pilot-In-Command) and in a multi-crew environment. Expected instructor flight time is 70-80 hours per month (with 80 hours being the legal limit under the F-1 visa program), with the expected earnings of $800 – $1200 USD per month.

Student's F-1 visa also offers a unique opportunity to work on the OPT (Optional Practical Training) program for an additional 12-24 months. Such program allows pilots to build extensive piston or even turbine time in either flight school or a passenger/cargo charter environment. This option is available for students who completed their initial CPT, logged over 600 hours of flight time (200 during their initial CPL training, 25 during the conversion/cfi training phase, and 400 during the CPT internship phase) and have completed CPT with no incidents, no accidents, and demonstrated a high degree of instructor professionalism.

Once the Student has completed internships as flight instructor and/or commercial pilot, he/she can submit application for the FAA/ICAO Airline Transport Pilot License. The FAA allows pilots who have logged over 1500 total time, of which 500 hours cross-country, 100 hours night, 75 hours instrument, 250 hours PIC and 50 hours of multi-engine time (see full list of aeronautical experience requirements) to take the FAA ATP theoretical exam and check-ride. This phase is done with our Miami partner PanAm Flight Academy and takes only 1 week, and consists of the mandatory The Airline Transport Pilot Certification Training Program (ATP-CTP) course. As of August 2018 completion of the ATP-CTP course is a new training requirement for pilots wishing to qualify for the FAA Airline Transport Pilot Exam. (Pilots will need to study for at least 2-3 weeks at their own pace in order to take a single FAA ATPL part 121 theoretical exam. There is no requirement for any specific classroom time for this exam. Exam can be taken at PanAm sim center in Miami at any time after completion of of FAA )

At this point, Aerocadet company will continue fostering your pilot career by offering a comprehensive airline employment support with the leading airlines in Asian and Middle East. This service is offered to the full program graduates. There is no limit to the assistance program: we will continue our support until the graduates get permanent airline employment. Of course, it is conditional on the graduate's passing the airline employment interview. Normally, placement programs take 3-6 months. Permanent employment in the United States may be achieved by qualified candidates through EB-1 visa application.

This optional internship course is offered to our graduates who have completed the CPT and OPT program as flight instructors and/or commercial pilots with good evaluations, showed fair professionalism and acceptable academic achievement, but who were unable to meet the Airline Pilot Internship standards at the time of graduation and need to continue building valuable flight time and grow their aviation experience by working as international aircraft delivery pilots for our international partner, Global Air Holding Ltd located in Caribbean, BVI. This company is specializing in aircraft sales and delivery from the United States to Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia for their international clients. Expected pilot salary is $2000 – $2500 per aircraft transfer.

Students will receive the following flight crew licenses during this program:

The Academic segment of the theoretical training is an important factor for those students who are planning on advancing their education to an Associate or a Bachelor's level. Although most airlines in the Middle East and Asia do not require a full college degree for pilot employment, having such a degree certainly gives a big advantage in a competitive airline pilot employment market and allows to significantly expand the job market spectrum. More and over, if a program graduate is able to stay in the United States as a permanent resident and seek employment in the major domestic airlines having at least a Bachelor's degree from any accredited North American university may become a mandatory requirement.

Please read more details about the F-1 visa airline employment opportunities in the United States here >>

This is why we have partnered with a fully-accredited university in the United States, Brewad College (Florida) to provide an Associate Degree in Aviation Science educational programs to our graduates.

Pilots who wish to advance themselves to the internship in the US airlines will be required to transfer to Breward College and complete a 1-year study in order earn their AAS degree and, most importantly, to qualify for an extended 12-month OPT with the regional airlines in the United States. Graduates will receive the following academic credits for their licenses and experience:

The listed above academic courses and their respective credit hour ratings may be converted into any college or university accreditation scale using the standard European Academic Credit Transfer System.

This is an instuctor employment program. To facilitate a healthy relationship between the students and the instructors, pilots (prospective flight instructors) who are enrolled into our Pathway Program are not alllowed to live in the same campus as ab-initio students. Pathway pilots are required to rent their own accommodation and commute to training/work at the academy using own transport, like all the other employees. Therefore, living expenses, including accommodation, are not included in the program cost estimate.

The Full Program Cost Estimate

The full cost estimate is based on student's compliance with the FAA flight training curriculum, 4-month accommodation cost and estimated government fees. The cost of this program is broken down into the following segments: [a] basic cost of CFI,CFII,MEI standardization, training and certification: $25,985.00 USD. ATPL training and certification: $5,550.00 USD; [b] government fees (medical, visa, TSA for each phase): $1000.00; [c] ferry pilot internship: $1750.00; [e] basic administrative and consulting fees: $1150.00 USD.

Additional Fees

Should a student fail any of the required check-rides, or not adhere to the curriculum set forth by the flight school, he/she will be liable for additional fees resulting from the additional training hours. Such fees will be billed separately and depend on the type of additional training and type of aircraft or FTD.

This is an instuctor employment program. To facilitate a healthy relationship between the students and the instructors, pilots (prospective flight instructors) who are enrolled into our Pathway Program are not alllowed to live in the same campus as ab-initio students. Pathway pilots are required to rent their own accommodation and commute to training/work at the academy using own transport, like all the other employees. Therefore, living expenses, including accommodation, are not included in the program cost estimate.

Add-ons

Students who do not hold an FAA commercial license with all the required ratings, or hold a non-FAA ICAO CPL license, will be changed for training and license conversion in accordance with the following fee table:

So, What is Included in the full estimated cost?

Our academy does not require students to pay for the entire flight training program in advance. We have a payment structure that needs to be followed by all students, with some exception. Students must submit the following payments:

Please note: conditions of deposit refund are outlined in the flight training agreement, which students are required to sign upon enrollment and before any payments are due.

Our company can provide administrative support for students to obtain Financial Aid from their respective banks and financial institutions. Such support is offered by providing conditional employment offer letters and training bond contracts. Read the details here >>>

Please note: Aerocadet does not provide flight training sponsorships. Please read the student loan information located via the above link thoroughly before applying for enrollment. 

To enroll into this program, an applicant must have the following documents:

If you need a personal consultation regarding the flight training program, please email one of our highly qualified consultants with a full list of your questions, and receive a structured response within 24 hours.

No current downloads available