A Royal Brunei all-female pilot crew recently touched down in Saudi Arabia.
Dubai - Overall, only about five percent of pilots are women, according to the International Society of Women Airline Pilots.
Published: Mon 18 Apr 2016, 3:45 PM
- By
- Curated by Sarakshi Rai
At a time when more and more all women crews are taking to the air and the number of women pilots are at an all-time high, an official from Turkish Airlines has said that Saudi women pilots are most welcome to join the airline if they do not find a job in the Kingdom.
"There is a global shortage in number of pilots. This shortage will reach to about 100,000 pilots by 2020," said Turkish Airlines General Manager Temel Kotil to Saudi Gazette while confirming there are opportunities for female Saudi graduates in aviation.
He also added that the women pilots would be ideally suited to fly those types of aircraft that do not need physical strength to fly it.
"We prefer to employ male and female Muslim pilots," he added.
However the male to female pilot ratio is still pretty skewed.
Overall, only about five percent of pilots are women, according to the International Society of Women Airline Pilots.
Women working in other areas of aviation have increased their roles more than pilots have according to Women of Aviation Week.
The organization also added that, "Female air traffic controllers now represent 26% of the air traffic controller population while female flight dispatchers stand at nearly 18% of the people working in this field. Even female aerospace engineers have made greater progress. Virtually non-existent in 1960, the percentage of women making a living as aerospace engineers reached 9.2% in 2010."
Recently here are some other achievements by women in aviation.
On International Women's Day on March 8, Air India flew 20 all-female flights throughout India and the world, including the long-haul San Francisco to New Delhi flight, which is a more than 17-hour haul. The pilot and first officer women, flight crew, cabin attendants and the on-board doctor - even ground staff including the air traffic controller, check-in staff and customer care agents were all women.
Last week, Singapore Airlines announced that it has hired its first female pilots, two women who were recruited as cadet pilots in August.
Air Zimbabwe had an all-female crew on a November flight from Harare to Victoria Falls. Shortly after, they were followed by Ethiopian Airlines on a route from Addis Abba to Bangkok, Thailand. In 2013, Air France had an all-female crew in charge of an Airbus 380 that flew from Paris to Washington.
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