Originally Posted by
pilot4545
Hi there,
I am in process of converting my license to an ATP. I don't know anyone down in the states so I'm looking for some guidance. I live on the West Coast of Canada with 2000TT. How does one get to the majors down in the states? Up here there are set paths through regionals that most people follow. Is it the same down there? Do certain regionals give you a better shot at the majors? Thanks for your advice.
Hi, I've done the conversion process, for ATP you will need to do a course / sim which is ridiculously expensive for what you get. My suggestion is to convert to commercial and have a future regional carrier pay for that course when hired (very common I don't know any regional that doesn't pay for it).
Also, very important: you need your right to work in the USA.
For carriers, there's some with flow through agreement (like westjet encore to westjet mainline) and other with guaranteed interview (like jazz and other AC express carriers). So to answer your question, if you go to Ennvoy, PSA, Piedmont (flow through carriers to AA) you will have a pretty well defined path.
Be ready for a good bump in salary from Canada, but be also ready to pay the Canadian government some taxes on your US income.
Hope this helps
