HOW TO BECOME AIRLINE PILOT IN CANADA?

Several students are interested in becoming an aircraft pilot, whether it is for private use or to practice a professional activity. Even if the training is very expensive, becoming a pilot is an incredible asset to students who wish to work in aeronautics.

Let’s see how to become airline pilot in Canada. We are going to give you the steps for that. Then we will see a detailed example through Professor Landry’s flight experience.
To be able to flight an airplane in Canada, you have to own either a pilot permits or one of the three required pilot licence.
The Recreational Pilot Permit [[Read requirements linked to Recreational Pilot Permit]] (RPP) allows you to fly only for a personal use and within the Canadian borders and limited to a 50nm range from departure airport. The owner of the Recreational Pilot Permit cannot fly during night, and carry more than one passenger on board. The RPP is only available for single engine aircrafts, with a 4-seater maximum airplane.
The Private Pilot Licence [[Read requirements linked to Private Pilote Licence]] (PPL) is comparable to the RPP except that the private pilot licence allows you to fly everywhere in the world for private use. It allows to carry several passengers, and offers the opportunity to get ratings like Night VFR, Instrument Rating, or Multiengine.
The Commercial Pilot Licence [[Read requirements linked to Commercial Pilot Licence]] allows you to fly in a commercial context and throughout the world either. The Commercial Pilot Licence allows to get a salary for executing a mission such as Air Taxi, parachute dropping or airborne banner towing. The CPL is also needed to become a Flight Instructor.
The Airline Transport Pilot Licence [[Read requirements linked to Airline Transport Pilot Licence]] (ATPL) allows to become captain and fly airliners. Once the ATPL passed, a Qualification Type is required to fly, depending on the aircraft.

It is indeed important to keep in mind that all of these licences are obtained following theoretical and practical exams.

To get a pilot licence or a pilot permit you have to select properly your flying school.
A training price can go from a few thousand dollars for a pilot permit to tens of thousands dollars for an airline transport pilot licence.
According to the frequency of courses, it can take a year to get a pilot permit or a commercial pilot licence and two more years to get an airline transport pilot licence.

You will find in the below chart a summary of a concrete example in professor Landry’s case.

To sum up, he got his Private Pilot Licence in around two years by taking lessons in two schools (Aérotaxi and Air Richelieu) for a total cost of 7,203.93 $.

Concerning his Commercial Pilot Licence, he has IFR and Multi-engine ratings. He attended lessons in many schools (Aérotaxi, Cargair, Aéroclub de Longueuil, Aéroclub de Montréal, Pro-aviation and Laurentide Aviation) also during two years , for a total cost of 25,766.82 $.

In the below chart you can find a summary of his flying hours to get all the Commercial Pilot Ratings.

You can access to his Pilot Logbook for more information concerning attended lessons hours, to his licence delivered by Transport Canada (former version and new version[[The new version of the Canadian pilot licence has a passport form]]), and to a synthesis of all the invoices paid for the complete training.

The below chart synthesizes the costs according to schools and received training.

See the PDF document