Five Airlines Hire 22 First Officers During On-Site Interviews at ATP

JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Florida — February 21, 2007

Four of the leading regional airlines, including ASA; Trans States Airlines; American Eagle; and Pinnacle Airlines, interviewed 24 pilot applicants during an on-site airline-hiring event at ATP headquarters. Twenty-two pilot applicants received firm class dates or conditional offers of employment, based on successful completion of ATP’s Regional Jet Standards Certification course and simulator evaluation. Many applicants received offers from more than one airline.

Accelerating growth has the regional airlines struggling to meet demand for pilots. Airlines are turning to ATP’s on-site hiring events to help fill classes. ATP facilitated the interviews for pilots with flight time as low as 350 hours total time, and 100 hours multi-engine time. Applicants were able to interview before meeting published airline minimums thanks to the Airline Pilot Hiring Agreement letters ATP has established with the airlines.

The agreements are based on completion of ATP’s Regional Jet Standards Certification program, which prepares pilots for the airlines with airline-style training in a CRJ-200 FTD, and a comprehensive ground school covering jet aircraft systems, flight deck management, jet automation, crew resource management, flight management systems (FMS), and electronic flight instrumentation systems (EFIS). Regional airline pilots developed and teach the course, providing the added benefit of real-world operating experience to the learning environment.

With the success of these 22 applicants, ATP remains the leading provider of pilots to the regional airlines. In the last 12 months, ATP has assisted over 175 pilots with achieving their career goals—more than any other single flight school or academy. The next on-site hiring event will take place in March. SkyWest and ATP will host a career seminar at ATP’s Daytona Beach Training Center.

In 1984 ATP pioneered accelerated, professional multi-engine flight training with an emphasis on pilot career development. Today ATP’s Airline Training Programs prepare pilots for airline careers with nationwide flying experience in multi-engine and jet aircraft. Airline hiring partnership letters recognize the value of this experience by offering ATP pilots specially reduced flight time minimums for airline employment, enabling pilots to reach their career goals faster. ATP flies over 5,000 hours and provides more than 300 FAA pilot certifications each month at 22 locations nationwide.