ATP Flight School A Prospectus for Flight Training Loan Cosigners

Introduction to ATP

ATP has trained professional pilots since 1984—over 35 years. Today ATP’s management consists of pilots who have flown for major airlines including American Airlines, FedEx, and previously TWA. ATP’s program development team includes active major and regional airline pilots who fly for United Express^®, Delta Connection, Southwest and Jet Blue.

ATP owns a fleet of 518 aircraft, including 97 multi-engine aircraft and 165 simulators, 8 of which are CRJ-200 Regional Jet simulators. ATP has 82 training centers across the U.S., emphasizing multi-engine, cross-country, crew-concept experience. In addition, ATP’s success over the past 35 years has enabled the company to own–not lease–all of its aircraft and its largest flight training facilities.

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Life as an ATP Flight School Student

When it comes to resources, experience, and stability, ATP is unmatched by any other flight school, college, or academy.

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Growing Demand for Professional Pilots

In its 2022-2042 Aerospace Forecast, the FAA cites the airline pilot shortage as an ongoing issue and one that is likely to persist. Boeing's Pilot & Technician Outlook projects that 128,000 pilots are needed in North America. It is estimated that by 2023, there will be a shortage of 12,000 pilots. Two main factors are driving the increased demand for pilots – retirements and industry growth.

Pilot Retirements

An aging pilot workforce facing mandatory retirements combined with early retirements taken during the pandemic is creating a shortage of pilots. Over the next 20 years, 80,000 airline pilots will be retiring. Future annual pilot retirements will average 4,100 new pilots per year and be greatest over the next five years.

According to Oliver Wyman, “With the lifting of COVID-19-related sanctions on air travel, demand rebounded more quickly in North America than elsewhere. As a result, the region already has an acute pilot shortage, equivalent to 11% of pilot supply, or about 8,000 pilots, and this gap will only widen throughout the decade… we expect that North America will be short nearly 30,000 pilots by 2032.“

United Airlines estimates that half of their 12,500 pilots will retire over the next ten years, and they will need to hire 10,000 pilots over that period to keep pace with the growth. American Airlines has similar predictions with 7,200 of their 15,000 pilots set to retire over the next decade.

Industry Growth

An increase in global economic growth has increased demand for air travel. Boeing, Airbus, and Embraer, all leading aircraft manufacturers, project increasing (even doubling) their commercial jet fleets to account for these demands for air travel by consumers.

Boeing concludes that the aviation industry will need to supply more than 602,000 commercial airline pilots worldwide over the next 20 years and forecasts a market value of $7.2 trillion for new airplane deliveries, with the global fleet increasing by 80% through 2041 compared to 2019 pre-pandemic levels.
Airbus estimates that airline traffic is forecast to double in size in the next 20 years.
Embraer foresees world demand for 10,950 new aircraft with up to 150 seats over the next 20 years with a market value of $650 billion. Embraer foresees worldwide demand for air transport, increasing an average of 3.2% annually through 2041

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Airline Pilot Seniority Get There First with ATP

Airlines operate on a seniority-based system, where the pilot employed the longest is the highest on the seniority list, enjoying the best schedules, higher pay, and better quality of life. Getting to the airlines as quickly as possible to start building seniority ahead of unprecedented hiring is essential. A pilot’s position on the seniority list will affect them for their entire career. A delay in training by one or two years could mean losing $400,000 to $800,000 in total career earnings by the time the pilot is a major airline captain. Students training and earning their certification today will be competitively positioned to capitalize on the pilot shortage and establish their careers.

With airline-oriented, total immersion pilot training, the certification needed for employment as a professional pilot can be obtained in just seven months with ATP. Airline partnerships and dedicated career services allow ATP graduates to advance faster in their career and provide them with a fast track to all the major airlines.

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Success of ATP Graduates

Traveling around the world, getting to know dozens of different cities, flying a jet at mach .80, and accomplishing a new mission with every flight induces a romance unattainable in other professions.

In order to help our graduates succeed, ATP has formed regional airline hiring alliances that allow us to get our graduates hired faster than those applicants coming to the airlines “off the street” or from other flight schools. Also, by utilizing our Regional Jet simulators (FTDs), ATP pilots are extremely well prepared for both their interviews and initial training at a regional airline.

Starting at the regional airline level, pilots can earn over $99,640 . Keep in mind that the airline pilot workforce is unionized and pay determined by union-negotiated contracts and seniority. With union protections and a strict seniority system, job security at the established regional and major airlines is excellent, with guaranteed career and earnings advancement. Forbes recently reported that airline pilots in the US can make as much as $300,000 per year and on top of that have retirement accounts paying out well over $1 million. Pilots willing to accept bases in Asia are cited as making as much as $400,000 per year.

Finally, professional pilots have FAA certificates and credentials that allow many other employment options in corporate aviation. For additional information on airline pilot pay and the regional airline industry, see ATP’s Airline Partners.

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Airline Sponsored Assistance

Airlines are Offering Huge Pay Raises to Pilots: To alleviate a spike in demand post-pandemic coupled with a major labor shortage, airlines are now offering dramatic pay increases to pilots in order to retain and attract new talent.

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With the pilot shortage upon us, airlines have selected ATP as a preferred training provider and now offer a solution to loan repayment responsibility by providing financial assistance to aspiring commercial pilots through ATP's Tuition Reimbursement Program. In this innovative program, exclusively for Airline Career Pilot Program graduates, participating airlines offer tuition reimbursement.

ATP's partnership with Envoy Air offers pilots the opportunity to become an Envoy employee while they are instructing ATP. This makes them eligible to receive health and travel benefits. Through this partnership, Airline Career Pilot Program graduates have the fastest path to a career at American Airlines; from zero experience to Envoy in two years, then flow-through to American in just over 5 years where compensation will exceed $300,000 per year.

ATP students have access to numerous loan options for full financing of airline career program flight training and this program now allows for a substantial portion of that loan payment to be subsidized by the pilot’s future airline employer.

This uniquely structured program not only promotes the airline pilot career by making it more financially obtainable, but provides the student with a fast track airline career solution from zero experience to airline pilot job in two years – proven by thousands of ATP graduates now flying for regional and major airlines.

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Building Qualifications

Graduates of ATP's Airline Career Pilot Program are among the most competitive, earning their flight instructor certificate with single-engine, instrument, and multi-engine ratings. This higher level of qualifications opens up more opportunity and allows graduates to start working as a flight instructor to gain the experience and flight time required by airlines.

Between 300-500 hours of total time, ATP flight instructors have the opportunity to interview with their airline and start earning tuition reimbursement. If they accept the airline's offer, the airline will begin making a financial contribution towards the instructor's loan payment, and the instructor will commit to fly for that airline.

Charter Pilot Jobs (Part 135)

ATP graduates don’t need as many hours of experience to fly with an FAA Part 135 Carrier compared to the 1500 hours required by the Regional Airlines. Many Part 135 Carriers such as Cape Air will hire a new pilot with as little as 500 hours of experience if they have trained with ATP.

Flight instructing for 15-18 months to meet the new standards that Regional Airlines have to operate under does not fit everyone's timetable, making Part 135 pilot jobs an excellent alternative.

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Financial Considerations

As a potential cosigner, there are three important facts you should know about ATP’s payment structure:

ATP receives payments incrementally throughout the program.
ATP quotes a fixed price.
Refunds are issued in 15 days or less.

ATP’s multi-disbursement payment structure allows us to determine a student’s ability to be successful in this career early in the program, prior to spending the entire amount of tuition. Unlike other flight training academies, ATP’s program is structured so that ATP is motivated to quickly discontinue those who are unlikely to excel at ATP’s pace. With a fixed-cost pricing structure, ATP does not benefit from having to provide more and more training at an hourly rate—a common tactic found elsewhere.

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Loan Details

Students who apply with cosigners generally receive lower interest rates and can finance a larger portion of tuition costs. Essentially, as a cosigner, you agree to pay the student’s loan payments if he or she for some reason does not. Usually a family member or friend will sponsor a student’s airline pilot career financing. Having a cosigner qualifies the student for the following benefits:

Higher loan amount–up to full tuition.
Lower interest rate.
Establishment of good credit history for the student.

You can gain the maximum benefit of having a cosigner on the loan when the cosigner has a 640+ credit score. Applying with a cosigner reduces risk for the lender, therefore these applicants are eligible for rates as low as 3.75% fixed.

Sallie Mae has flexible repayment options after the traditional 6 month post-school grace period has been exhausted. Sallie Mae offers Graduated Repayment, which allows for 12 months of interest-only payments before the loan enters full repayment. This repayment plan gives ATP's graduates the ability to earn a salary as an airline pilot (and in many cases secure a signing bonus) before making full payments.

Most lenders offer a cosigner release option. After making as few as 12 consecutive on-time principal and interest payments, the borrower may request that the lender remove the cosigner from the loan entirely as long as the borrower has sufficient credit individually. After achieving a regional airline pilot job, it may be possible to refinance the loan at a lower rate and without a cosigner. Citizens Bank will work with ATP Graduates to refinance their loans.

If a student discontinues training with ATP, the refund will be issued directly back to the lender, not the student. This minimizes interest expense and protects the cosigner. A student may choose to discontinue the program at any time, for any reason.

Additional Benefits for the Cosigner

As a friend or relative of an airline employee, you can often take advantage of airline-employee friend/family benefits, including:

Free and/or discounted airline travel, including First Class
Vacation discounts
Auto-rental discounts
Hotel discounts

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Next Steps

Seniority is everything. Pilots who train with ATP gain an advantage meeting hiring minimums, and effectively gain two years’ seniority over their peers who train elsewhere.

Not only is the career outlook bright, but ATP offers the best choice in flight schools. Nowhere else will you find better aircraft, a more cost and time-efficient program, or a team of professionals more dedicated to training the best professional pilot applicants.

Only ATP gives you this level of confidence in your flight training investment.

Students and their cosigner should apply together on-line at ATPFlightSchool.com/apply.

How to Apply »

For Additional Information Please contact:

Kirk Clews
Student Finance Coordinator

ATP Flight School
904-595-7946
[email protected]

ATP Flight School A Prospectus for Flight Training Loan Cosigners

Introduction to ATP

Life as an ATP Flight School Student

Growing Demand for Professional Pilots

Pilot Retirements

Industry Growth

Airline Pilot Seniority Get There First with ATP

Success of ATP Graduates

Airline Sponsored Assistance

Building Qualifications

Charter Pilot Jobs (Part 135)

Financial Considerations

Loan Details

Additional Benefits for the Cosigner

Next Steps

For Additional Information Please contact:

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