Time Building for the Regional Airline Path
How time building feeds into the regional airline path — what airlines want, what counts, and how to optimize spend.
If your goal is the right seat of a regional jet, every hour you log is either making that path shorter or longer. Here is how regionals actually look at logbooks.
The 1,500 hour rule (in plain English)
To act as a first officer at a Part 121 air carrier, you need an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) certificate. The ATP requires:
- 1,500 hours total time (with reductions: 1,000 hr R-ATP for accredited degree, 1,250 hr R-ATP for military/specific programs)
- 500 hours XC
- 100 hours night
- 75 hours instrument
- 250 hours PIC, with 100 of those XC
The regionals want you to walk in the door with all of those boxes checked.
What the regionals actually look at
Beyond the boxes, regional hiring departments care about:
- Total time — more is better, especially over 1,500
- Multi-engine time — usually 50-100 hours minimum, ideally 200+
- PIC time — they want to see you've been responsible for the aircraft
- Recent activity — gaps in flying are a yellow flag
- Quality of training — Part 141, structured programs, and clean checkride history
What they don't really care about: whether your time is in a 172 or an LSA. PIC is PIC. XC is XC.
Optimizing spend on the path to 1,500
A common path:
- Private pilot: 60-70 hours
- Instrument rating: ~50 hours
- Commercial: 250 hours total (so add ~120 hours of time building)
- CFI / CFII / MEI add-ons: ~30 hours dual + checkrides
- Instructing toward 1,500: ~1,000 hours paid by students
The smart move: do your time building hours in the cheapest credible aircraft you can fly, then transition to instructing for the rest.
At A4's $135/hr wet vs a typical $195/hr 172, 120 hours of time building saves you $7,200 — enough to cover most of the multi-engine add-on.
Multi-engine time
You can't shortcut this. ME time has to be in a multi. Most pilots add 50-100 hours of ME time after their CFII through a focused ME-time-building program. Plan ~$300-400/hr for ME, and budget separately.
Logging discipline matters more here
Regionals will ask for your logbook. They'll spot-check XC legs, PIC entries, and night currency. A messy or inconsistent logbook can stop a hiring conversation cold. Use a digital logbook from day one.
A4 supports the time-building leg of the regional path. We're not a CFI mill or a 141 school — we provide modern, affordable aircraft so you can log clean PIC hours efficiently.