If you plan on getting your bachelor's degree in air transportation, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #74 in the country in terms of popularity. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
College Factual looked at 50 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Air Transportation Bachelor's Degree Schools ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 6,511 bachelor's degrees in air transportation to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Air Transportation School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The air transport bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we consider a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a combination of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to air transportation students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of air transportation students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How much debt air transportation students go into to obtain their bachelor's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized air transportation related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for air transportation students working on their bachelor's degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Air Transportation Bachelor's Degree Schools list, to help you choose the best school for you.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
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Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Air Transportation in the United States
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in air transportation. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Daytona Beach is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in air transportation. Embry-Riddle Daytona Beach is a large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Daytona Beach.
Those air transportation students who get their bachelor's degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Daytona Beach receive $10,541 more than the typical air transport graduate.
Any student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in air transportation has to check out University of North Dakota. UND is a large public university located in the city of Grand Forks.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the air transport program report average early career income of $46,193.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Worldwide is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in air transportation. Located in the small city of Daytona Beach, Embry-Riddle Worldwide is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Air Transportation bachelor's degree recipients from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Worldwide receive an earnings boost of approximately $10,541 over the typical income of air transportation majors.
Purdue University - Main Campus is a great choice for individuals interested in a bachelor's degree in air transportation. Located in the city of West Lafayette, Purdue is a public university with a very large student population.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the air transport program state that they receive average early career income of $45,190.
Located in the city of Prescott, Embry-Riddle Prescott is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Air Transportation bachelor's degree recipients from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Prescott receive an earnings boost of around $10,541 over the average earnings of air transportation majors.
Located in the small city of Manhattan, K -State is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those air transportation students who get their bachelor's degree from Kansas State University receive $6,912 more than the average air transport grad.
Located in the small city of Melbourne, Florida Tech is a private not-for-profit school with a moderately-sized student population.
Those air transportation students who get their bachelor's degree from Florida Institute of Technology make $2,733 more than the standard air transport student.
Liberty University is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Lynchburg.
Air Transportation bachelor's degree recipients from Liberty University get an earnings boost of approximately $6,343 over the typical earnings of air transportation majors.
UVU is a fairly large public university located in the city of Orem.
Bachelor's recipients from the air transportation degree program at Utah Valley University earn $12,116 above the average college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
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Honorable Mentions
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Air Transportation Bachelor's Degree Schools award.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.