What is the ATP CTP course? 2026 requirements, cost and how it fits the Professional Pilot Program

Most pilots meet ATP CTP the same way: somewhere past 900 hours, an airline application open in one tab, they discover there is a course standing between them and the ATP written exam they assumed they could just go sit.

It is not an upsell, and it is not optional. The FAA requires it. The good news is that it is short, it is genuinely useful, and if you plan it right, you complete it while your hours are still building instead of losing weeks at the exact moment a carrier is ready to talk to you.

Here is what the course is, what it costs in 2026, who can take it, and where it lands in your training if you are coming through a structured program.

What ATP CTP actually is

The Airline Transport Pilot Certification Training Program is an FAA-mandated ground and simulator course under 14 CFR §61.156. Completing it satisfies the prerequisite in §61.35(a)(2), which is what makes you eligible to take the ATP Multi-Engine Airplane knowledge test, usually called the ATM.

Without an ATP CTP graduation certificate, you cannot take that test. Every pilot pursuing an Airline Transport Pilot certificate to fly for a Part 121 carrier goes through it.

One distinction worth being precise about: the course does not give you an ATP certificate. It authorizes the written exam. The certificate itself still requires passing the ATM, reaching the flight-hour minimum, and passing an ATP practical checkride with an FAA examiner. Our ATP CTP course page lays out that sequence in full.

2026 requirements: who can enroll

The FAA's eligibility bar is lower than most pilots expect. To enroll, you must:

• Be at least 17 years old
• Read, speak, write, and understand English
• Hold one of the following: an FAA Private Pilot Certificate, qualifying military experience under §61.73 for an FAA Commercial Pilot Certificate with Instrument Rating, or a foreign pilot license issued by an ICAO country

There is no high-hour requirement to take the course. You can complete it long before you approach 1,500 hours.

In practice, though, a Commercial Pilot Certificate with an Instrument Rating is the sensible starting point. The material assumes you already think like a professional pilot: transport-category aerodynamics, air carrier operations, multi-crew flight decks. Pilots who arrive with commercial-level experience get considerably more out of the week.

The pilots we most often see in a cohort are commercial pilots preparing for regional or legacy applications, CFIs planning their next move, military pilots transitioning to civilian airline careers, and foreign license holders converting credentials to an FAA ATP. If you are earlier than that, our pilot training programs cover the stages that come first.

What the course costs in 2026

Against the total investment of a professional flying career, $3,950 for a required credential is a small line item. It is also one that surprises people who did not budget for it, which is the main reason to know about it early. Financing options through Sallie Mae and Stratus Financial can cover it alongside other training costs.

Most pilots stay at a hotel near our Sanford campus for the ground week, then travel to the simulator facility near Orlando International Airport for the flight block. Our Pilot Career Advisors recommend trusted local hotels and help coordinate transport between the two sites.

What the week actually looks like

The course runs approximately six to seven days in a small-cohort format, split into three parts.

Step 1 - Ground instruction, 30 hours. Instructor-led classroom training at our Sanford campus, covering four FAA-mandated modules:

• Aerodynamics: 8 hours
• Meteorology: 2 hours
• Air Carrier Operations: 14 hours
• Leadership, Professional Development, CRM and Safety Culture: 6 hours

The weighting tells you what the FAA cares about here. Air carrier operations and CRM together take up two-thirds of the classroom time, because this course exists to bridge single-pilot general aviation habits into multi-crew airline operations.

Step 2 - Flight Training Device (a Level D device without motion), 4 hours. Non-motion simulator work on navigation, flight management systems, and the automation and autoflight workflows that run a modern flight deck.

Step 3 - Full Flight Simulator, 6 hours. Full-motion Level D Airbus A320 training at Avenger Flight Group near Orlando International Airport. This is the part pilots talk about afterward. The syllabus covers low energy states and stall recovery, upset prevention and recovery, runway safety and ground operations, high-altitude operations, and adverse weather including icing, thunderstorms and gusting crosswinds.

For most pilots arriving from piston singles and light twins, six hours in a Level D A320 is the first real exposure to transport-category handling at altitude. It shows up later in Part 121 indoc and in airline interviews. If you want the first-hand version, one of our graduates wrote up a full account of the course.

We deliver the program in partnership with Bell Murray Aerospace, and the instruction comes from former fleet managers and chief pilots with major U.S. airline backgrounds. The small-cohort format is what makes that worth something: you can actually ask the questions you have been saving up.

Where ATP CTP fits after the Professional Pilot Program

This is the part that confuses people mapping out a full career path, so let us be direct about the sequence.

The Professional Pilot Program takes you from zero experience or a Private Pilot Certificate to a Commercial Single-Engine Certificate and a Certified Flight Instructor certificate in 12 to 15 months. ATP CTP is a separate course you take later, after that program, once you are working as a pilot and building hours. It is not bundled into the program price.

The realistic order looks like this:

1. Finish the Professional Pilot Program. You hold Commercial and CFI certificates at roughly 250 to 300 hours. Our Professional Pilot Program timeline breaks that first stretch down phase by phase.
2. Build hours, usually by instructing. Full-time instructing typically carries a pilot toward the 1,500-hour standard ATP minimum over about 18 to 24 months. FAA rules also allow reduced minimums for qualifying graduates of approved degree programs (as few as 1,000 hours, or 1,250 for associate programs) and 750 hours for qualifying military pilots.
3. Take ATP CTP while you are still building. Six to seven days, at a point in the calendar you choose.
4. Take the ATM knowledge test. 125 questions, 70% to pass, at FAA-approved testing centers nationwide. Results stay valid for 60 months.
5. Complete your ATP checkride once you reach the hour minimum, either in a light twin or combined with a type rating such as a B737.
6. Apply to carriers, with support from our Pilot Career Advisors and access to the airline career pathways that recruit on our Sanford campus.

The scheduling advantage in step 3 is real, and it is the single most useful thing to take from this article: the ATP CTP graduation certificate never expires. Complete the course at 900 hours and it is still valid at 1,500. Pilots who wait until an airline is interested end up scrambling for a course date during the exact week they would rather be preparing for an interview.

Get your ATP CTP week on the calendar

If an airline application is somewhere in your next 18 months, this is the requirement to handle now, while your schedule still belongs to you.

See full ATP CTP course details, including the syllabus, prerequisites and what to bring, then talk with a Pilot Careers Advisor about the dates that fit your hour-building plan. You can also attend an upcoming event to meet the team in person.