In addition to accepting delivery of six new Piper Archer TXs on Monday, ATP Flight School has announced that it has renewed a 2018 order for 100 Piper trainers. As previously reported by AVweb, the agreement is the second 100-aircraft order ATP has signed with Piper Aircraft. ATP also ordered 100 Cessna 172 Skyhawks at AirVenture last year.
“Anticipated airline pilot demand exceeds the current capabilities of the flight training industry,” said ATP Flight School Director of Marketing Michael Arnold. “ATP continues to invest in our graduates’ careers with the best flight training fleet in the industry.”
ATP has opened six new training locations in 2020 with plans to open five more by the end of the year. The school currently operates a fleet of 403 aircraft—a combination of Piper Archers, Cessna Skyhawks and Piper Seminoles—based at 47 training centers across the U.S. According to ATP, its aircraft log approximately 26,000 flight training hours per month with an estimated 8,870 FAA certificates issued to its students annually.
Unless students show up with lots of time already in their logbooks, the cited 35.2 hours of airplane time per certificate seems awfully low, even after accounting for creditable simulator time.
Maybe a heavy share of 20-hour instrument ratings?
My oldest son completed several of his certs with ATP a few years ago. As I recall it seemed quite expensive at the time for the amount of actual flight time he received.
I did my MEI with ATP. Great experience. If I had more ratings to earn, I would go back to ATP without hesitation.