Pathway to TC 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-ATPC 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 Transport Canada flight academy (DLI) which has a special permission from the Canadian Goverment to issue our students an official Canada Student Permit. Such visa allows our students to study and, while studying, work part-time at any adjacent to campus location; and after the achievement of Transport Canada CPL and CFI licenses, apply for post-graduate work permit (PGWP) for the period of 12 months with an unlimited term extension option through application for Canada Experience Class - PR. This PGWP allows studens to undergo structured pilot internship as certified flight instructors or commercial pilots either with our FTP in Canada, or any other Canadian aviation company, regardless of student's country of citizenship. This special student visa internship allow our graduates to build enough flight time to qualify for a full, unrestricted TC/ICAO Airline Transport Pilot License. More and over, if students apply for CEC, they can qualify for Canada PR and become eligible to apply for employment in regional Canadian airlines, such as Jazz Aviation, WesJet, and many more. After working for regional airlines in Canada and getting over 2000 hours of jet time, pilots will qualify for direct first officer entry into Emirates, Qatar, Etihad and more.

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.

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:

*Please note: the training and internship time-lines are estimates and will depend on weather and student skills levels.

Total duration of the program is approximately two and a half years, including flight instructor internships in Canada, which takes about 18 months (12 months on PGWP + 6 months on CEC extension), and not including Airline Pilot Internship after CEC approval, which is unlimited, (Option 7A) or 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 Canada to a very high standard by an accredited flight academy "Canadian Aviation College" located in British Columbia, Canada; and "Global Air BVI Inc" located in British Virgin Islands, Caribbean; flight instructor internship options are provided by Canadian Aviation College, Global Air BVI, and other affiliates. After the completion of all flight training phases, student may apply for PGWP and internship as a flight instructor with our FTP in Canada, and an ability to build a very important to his/her career flight time. After pilot achieves 1500 hours of flight time, student will be able to obtain his/her full, unrestricted TC/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 Caribbean. 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 stage, applicants will be required to complete enrollment application form (here >>>) and provide documents for initial consideration by our company. Our requirements are simple: ICAO Commercial Pilot License with over 200 hours of flight time and applicable valid medical, high school diploma (or higher), ICAO-4 English certificate (or higher), IELTS Academic test with score 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, the student will be furnished with the flight training agreement, visa support paperwork, preliminary aviation training study materials. (Aerocadet will provide comprehensive administrative support for this stage of the program)

Transport Canada Class I medical can be taken before or after arrival in Canada. It does not matter if you want to take the medical before or after taking the TC CPL written exams. Aerocadet's FTP admin will book you an appointment with the medical examiner in the metropolitan or greater Toronto area. However, some countries allow pilots to take TC Class I medical locally. Please review >>> this page >>> to see if a TC medical examiner is available in your country/region. Please note: if your country of residence has a certified TC medical examiner, we recommend to pass your medical at your earliest opportunity due to longer than usual (6 months) processing times.

After arrival in Canada at our flight training provider's center (operated by Canadian Aviation College) you will undergo a short TC Class I pilot medical (if you already passed the TC medical in your own country - you can miss this step). After this, you will start your theoretical and practical standardization training. In this phase, you will follow one of the two possible conversion pathways: one is for the FAA (US) CPL holders, and one for all other ICAO CPL holders. This is due to the fact that United States and Canada have a special reciprocity agreement which allows FAA CPL holders direct conversion to Transport Canada CPL. No other contracting ICAO states, including EASA, have such agreements with Canada in place. Therefore, all other ICAO CPL holders will be required to pass commercial pilot and instrument ground school, written exams and practical check-rides with a designated Transport Canada examiner. This training phase takes 1 months for FAA CPL holders and 4 months for ICAO CPL holders, and may be extended, depending on the amount of work some ICAO CPL holders (especially from developing countries) may require in order to meet the Transport Canada CPL knowledge and practical skills standards.

Once you have completed your Commercial License conversion, you will proceed to obtain TC Certified Class 4 Flight Instructor rating. This is necessary to facilitate the internship phase of our program which will allow you to work as flight instructor and start building valuable flight time towards your unrestricted ICAO ATPL license, as well as get paid for your work. This phase should take 4-6 months.

Once you have successfully obtained your flight instructor license, you will have an opportunity to apply for Canada's Post-Graduate Work Permit (PGWP). This special permit is normally offered to students who have completed at least 12 months of study period with Canada's Designated Learning Institution (DLI) and want to build work experience for up to 36 months after the graduation. Graduates who meet the basic training standards requirements (see terms and conditions box underneath this outline section) will be offered an opportunity to apply for full-time employment (30+ hours per week) as flight instructors at our partner FTP in British Columbia. Alternatively, in case there are no flight instructor positions available at the FTP at the time of graduation, pilots will be provided internship placement assistance (in a form of referral and reference letters) with the other flight schools or flight charter companies in Canada where they can also build turbine time. PGWP allows graduates to work full-time anywhere in Canada and in any aviation field of their choosing, such as flight instruction, charter flying, bushflying and so on. However, you will not be able to enter airline employment at this point, as it requires a full ATPL with 1500 hours and a PR (permanent residency) in Canada.

After 12 months of working as a pilot intern in Canada (24 months recommended for higher success rate) you can take advantage of Canada Experience Class program and apply for permanent residency in Canada, which will allow you to work in Canadian airlines or any other aviation companies in Canada without any employment limit. The CEC application phase takes approximately 6 months. While your application is pending decision by the goverment authorities, you will be allowed to continue working on PGWP for the duration of the decision making term. Once approved, and after you obtain your full ATPL (see phase 6) - you will be able to apply for employment as First Officer with most regional Canadian airlines. (The Canadian Experience Class point-based system is discussed in detail on our blog here >>>)

Upon completing 12+6 months and 1500 hours of total flight time under the PGWP, you will be able to apply for the Transport Canada Airline Transport Pilot License under provisions of Division VIII - Airline Transport Pilot Licence 421.34 Aeroplanes. This license is a full, unrestricted ICAO ATPL and can be converted to any other ICAO ATPL, if needed. Practical and theoretical ATPL exams do not have any specific training pre-requisites, so pilots can take them as soon as their reach personal aeronautical experience of 1500 hours. The minimum requirements for this licence are experience are: 1500 Flight Hours, incl. 250 PIC, 100 PIC Cross Country, 100 Night, and 25 Night Cross Country PIC, and 75 Hours Instrument; successful completion of a 2 Part Written Exam. There is no Flight Exam required for the issue of a Canadain ATPL.

At this stage, if approved for CEC PR, you can start your employment applicationo for the first officer position in the regional airlines in Canada, such as Jazz Aviation, WestJet, etc. Canadian airlines do not require applicants to hold jet type ratings upon application. Airlines finance all training and type-rating expenses pertinent to the employment requirements. For example, if you are successull in applying and passing the recruitment process (employment application, technical interview and panel interview), for Jazz Aviation, the airline will pay 100% of expenses for your initial training, wich will last approximately 8-10 weeks and include a type-rating on CL-65 (CRJ-700/900) jet. Once you complete at least 2000 hours on this type, your type rating and experience will satisfy the MTOW (maximum takeoff weight) jet flight time requirements for direct entry employment with Emirates, Qatar, Etihad and many other similar airlines.

In an unlikely event that you are unable to obtain Canada's permanent residency permit, our partner in Caribbean, Global Air, will offer you employment as an international ferry pilot. This position requires pilot to work on the charter pilot basis, performing 1-2 aircraft repositioning flights per month from various destination around the world to/from North America and Europe using the D-type crew visa. The company will provide all the necessary training and visa support. The student will be able to build over 1500 hours of valuable international cross-country flight time over the period of 24 months on various types of light piston and turbine aircraft with MTOW below 7500kg. (Aerocadet will provide comprehensive administrative support for this stage of the program)

*Please note: the training and internship time-lines are estimates and will depend on weather and student skills levels. CEC applicatoin is based on a point-system and results may vary. Administrative support for PGWP and CEC is provided by Canadian Immigration Services (45 Sheppard Ave E #500B, North York, ON M2N 5W9).

• (i) 50 hours of cross-country flight as pilot-in-command in aeroplanes or helicopters of which 10 hours must be in the appropriate category; and
• (ii) 40 hours of instrument time of which a maximum of 20 hours may be instrument ground time. The 40 hours instrument time shall include a minimum of:
  • (A) 5 hours of dual instrument flight time acquired from the holder of a flight instructor rating ,
  • (B) 5 hours in aeroplanes where the applicant is applying for a Group 1, 2 or 3 instrument rating or in helicopters where the applicant is applying for a Group 4 instrument rating,
  • (C) Fifteen (15) hours of dual instrument flight time provided by a qualified person
  • (D) one dual cross-country flight under simulated or actual IMC conditions of a minimum of 100 nautical miles, the flight to be conducted in accordance with an IFR flight plan to include at, two different locations, an instrument approach to minima.

If you do not meet the above requirements, you will need to complete the full multi-engine rating add-on course, by taking the following flight training curriculum:

and for multi-engine instrument rating:

CPL holders who have no multi-engine rating, but do have instrument rating on their single-engine rating, will have to take multi-engine and multi-engine instrument rating course at the total cost of $16250 USD, which will include 20 hours on a sim, 27 hours on Seneca, 20 hours of ground school, and 22 hours ground briefing. And this will include theoretical exams and check-rides

Please note: the published above curriculum is normally sufficient for an average student to achieve the required ratings. In some rare situations additional training may be required. The cost of additional multi-engine training is $405 USD per dual (with instructor) flight hour. The total cost of add-ons is published below, in the "Tuition Cost" section.

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

Students who complete 12 months of study in Canada under the Canada Student Permit and 12 months of internship under the PGWP are eligible to apply for unrestricted employment permit under the CEC program (see Phase 7A)

If approved for CEC PR, you can start your employment application for the first officer position in the regional airlines in Canada, such as Jazz Aviation, WestJet, etc. Canadian airlines do not require applicants to hold jet type ratings upon application. Airlines finance all training and type-rating expenses pertinent to the employment requirements. For example, if you are successful in applying and passing the recruitment process (employment application, technical interview and panel interview), for Jazz Aviation, the airline will pay 100% of expenses for your initial training, which will last approximately 8-10 weeks and include a type-rating on CL-65 (CRJ-700/900) jet. Once you complete at least 2000 hours on this type, your type rating and experience will satisfy the MTOW (maximum takeoff weight) jet flight time requirements for direct entry employment with Emirates, Qatar, Etihad and many other similar airlines.

This is primarily a flight instructor employment program. To facilitate a healthy relationship between the students and the instructors, pathway pilots (prospective flight instructors) who are enrolled into this Pathway program are not advised to live in the same campus accommodation as the ab-initio (initial training) students. Pathway pilots are recommended 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. For the purpose of budget planning, a single-room in a shared apartment in the college proximity area will cost approximately $750 USD per month to rent. In accordance with the Canadian Student Permit regulations, Pathway Pilots will be allowed to work part-time (up to 80 hours per month) during the training phase of the program, and full-time (at least 120 hours per month) during the internship phase of this program, in order to supplement their accommodation and living expenses.

The Full Program Cost Estimate

The full cost estimate is based on student's compliance with the TC flight training curriculum. The cost of this program is broken down into the following segments: [a1] basic cost of non-FAA ICAO CPL to TC CPL conversion; or [a2] basic cost of FAA CPL to TC CPL conversion; flight instructor training, [b] Administrative and consulting fees, Global Air internship fees.

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.

CPL holders who do not have Multi-engine or instrument ratings will need to purchase these courses in addition to the basic cost of training and internship. Please contact us for custom pricing.

So, What is Included in the 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.

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