ATP Requirements

Be at least 23 years of age.
Be able to read, speak, write, and understand the English language.
Be of good moral character.
Meet at least one of the following:
1. Hold at least a commercial pilot certificate and an instrument rating.
2. Meet the military experience requirements (listed in FAR 61.73) to qualify for a commercial pilot certificate and an instrument rating.
3. Hold either a foreign ATP or a foreign commercial pilot license and an instrument rating, without limitations, issued by a member nation of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
Hold at least a current FAA third-class medical certificate. Later, if your flying requires an ATP certificate, you must hold a first-class medical certificate.
Receive and log ground training from an authorized instructor to learn (61.155)
1. Applicable Federal Aviation Regulations . . . that relate to airline transport pilot privileges, limitations, and flight operations.
2. Meteorology, including knowledge of and effects of fronts, frontal characteristics, cloud formations, icing, and upper-air data.
3. General systems of weather and NOTAM collection, dissemination, interpretation, and use.
4. Interpretation and use of weather charts, maps, forecasts, sequence reports, abbreviations, and symbols.
5. National Weather Service functions as they pertain to operations in the National Airspace System.
6. Windshear and microburst awareness, identification, and avoidance.
7. Principles of air navigation under instrument meteorological conditions in the National Airspace System.
8. Air traffic control procedures and pilot responsibilities as they relate to en route operations, terminal area and radar operations, and instrument departure and approach procedures.
9. Aircraft loading, weight and balance, use of charts, graphs, tables, formulas, and computations, and their effect on aircraft performance.
10. Aerodynamics relating to an aircraft's flight characteristics and performance in normal and abnormal flight regimes.
11. Human factors.
12. Aeronautical decision making and judgment.
13. Crew resource management to include crew communication and coordination.
Pass a pilot knowledge test with a score of 70% or better.
1. A knowledge test is not required for you to add another aircraft type rating to your ATP certificate if your ATP certificate lists the aircraft category and class rating that is appropriate to the type rating sought.
Accumulate flight experience (FAR 61.159).
1. Except as provided in b. and c. on the next page, you must log at least 1,500 hr. of total time as a pilot that includes at least
  1. 500 hr. of cross-country flight time
  2. 100 hr. of night flight time
    1. A person who has performed at least 20 night takeoffs and landings to a full stop may substitute each additional night takeoff and landing to a full stop for 1 hr. of night flight time, limited to not more than 25 hr. of night flight time.
  3. 75 hr. of actual or simulated instrument flight time
    1. The maximum time that may be accumulated in a flight simulator or flight training device, representing an airplane, is either
      1. 25 hr., if the training is not conducted under FAR Part 142, or
      2. 50 hr., if the training is conducted under FAR Part 142.
  4. 250 hr. of flight time as PIC of an airplane, or as SIC performing the duties and functions of a PIC under the supervision of a PIC, or by any combination of the two. This requirement must include
    1. 100 hr. of cross-country time
    2. 25 hr. of night flight time
    NOTE: Not more than 100 hr. of the total aeronautical experience requirements may be obtained in a flight simulator or a flight training device that represents an airplane, provided the experience was obtained in a course conducted under FAR Part 142.
2. A commercial pilot may credit the following flight time toward the 1,500 hr. of total pilot time.
  1. SIC time, provided the time is acquired in an airplane, under one of the following conditions:
    1. Required to have more than one pilot flight crewmember by the airplane's flight manual, a type certificate, or the regulations under which the flight is being conducted
    2. Engaged in operations under Part 121 or 135 for which a SIC is required
    3. Required under the FARs to have more than one pilot flight crewmember
  2. Flight-engineer time, provided the time
    1. Is acquired in an airplane required to have a flight engineer by the airplane's flight manual or type certificate
    2. Is acquired while in operations conducted under Part 121 for which a flight engineer is required
    3. Is acquired while the person is participating in a pilot training program under Part 121
    4. Does not exceed more than 1 hr. for each 3 hr. of flight-engineer flight time for a total credited time of not more than 500 hr.
3. You may be issued an ATP certificate with the endorsement "Holder does not meet the pilot in command aeronautical experience requirements of ICAO," if you
  1. Credit SIC or flight-engineer time toward the 1,500 hr. total flight time requirement
  2. Do not have at least 1,200 hr. of flight time as a pilot, including no more than 50% of your SIC time and none of your flight-engineer time
  3. Otherwise meet the aeronautical experience requirements
    NOTE: The endorsement described in item c. above will be removed when you present satisfactory evidence of the accumulation of 1,200 hr. flight time as a pilot including no more than 50% of your SIC time and none of your flight-engineer time.
Successfully complete the ATP practical flight test given as a final exam by an FAA inspector or designated pilot examiner and conducted as specified in the FAA's Airline Transport Pilot and Type Rating Practical Test Standards (FAA-S-8081-5B, dated July 1995).
1. The ATP practical test covers the following areas of operations:
  1. Preflight preparation
  2. Preflight procedures
  3. Takeoff and departure phase
  4. In-flight maneuvers
  5. Instrument procedures
  6. Landings and approaches to landings
  7. Normal and abnormal procedures
  8. Emergency procedures
  9. Postflight procedures