The term “FAA Approved School” is associated with the traditional “Collegiate Training Initiative” (CTI) program. AATC offers a “CTO” program. The CTO or Control Tower Operator certification course is a one year technical certificate program. When a student completes this program, they will have met all the requirements in accordance with FAR Part 65 and satisfactorily passed an FAA Facility Rating evaluation by an FAA Examiner. The FAA Examiner will then issue a Control Tower Operator certificate with Facility Rating. The FAA is the issuing authority for all CTO certificates.