Sourced cost directory · Updated July 22, 2026
Aviation college costs by state
Degree programs with their all-in cost. Tuition, room & board, and flight fees, each from the school's own published pages, summed into an honest estimate. The degree is the only path that lowers your airline hour minimum below 1,500.
- programs listed
- 47
- states covered
- 28
- all-in, in-state
- from $68.1K
programs listed
states covered
all-in, in-state
28 states with programs so far, or tap a state on the map. We add states as we verify them.
How these costs work
For each program we list the school's own published tuition, room & board, and whole-program flight fees, with the academic year and a link to the source, then sum them into an all-in estimate. Flight fees are billed separately, on top of tuition, and are the single most-missed cost. Where a school publishes no flight total, that one line is a PilotBound estimate and says so on the program's page. The figure is our estimate of the all-in, not the school's quoted package, and a real student's cost will differ. PilotBound is not affiliated with the schools, and a school can correct or remove its listing anytime. Disclaimer & removal policy.
Want all five paths side by side (Part 61, Part 141, an academy, a 2-year or a 4-year degree)? Use the cost comparison.
Not set on a degree? Browse flight schools by state for hourly local training, or accelerated academies for fixed-price full-time programs.
Common questions about aviation college costs
- How much does an aviation college degree cost?
- Across the 47 collegiate aviation programs in this directory, spanning 28 states, PilotBound's all-in estimates for an in-state student run from $68,133 to $346,693, with a median of $174,043. Each estimate sums the school's own published tuition, room and board, and flight fees; flight fees are billed on top of tuition and move with the hours you actually fly. These are PilotBound sums of published figures, checked July 22, 2026, not the schools' quotes.
- What is a restricted ATP (R-ATP)?
- The airline transport pilot certificate normally requires 1,500 flight hours. Under 14 CFR 61.160, a qualifying aviation degree lowers that minimum to 1,000 hours with a bachelor's or 1,250 with an associate's, letting a graduate fly for an airline sooner. That reduction only comes with the degree path; no academy or local school shortens it.
- Is an aviation degree worth it compared to an academy or a local school?
- The degree is the only path that lowers the airline hour minimum, and it leaves you with a bachelor's or associate's credential. It also usually costs the most, because tuition and room and board sit on top of the flight training itself. The honest comparison is this directory's all-in figure against an academy's sticker or a local school's estimate for the same certificates, plus roughly a year less of hour-building on the degree side.