Arab women seek larger role in aviation

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As commercial aviation witnesses a boom across the world,more and more women are passionately striving to become a part of the industry.Women in airspace have transitioned from being employed as flight attendants topremier cockpit controllers. Compared with other countries in the Middle Eastand North Africa (MENA) region, the UAE has more women pilots, captains,aircraft engineers, mechanics, aircraft maintenance and air trafficcontrollers, among others.

Emirates Airlines and Group currently employs nearly 27,000 women, making up 42 percent of the group’s workforce, including women pilots which include the youngest Emirati female pilot operating the world’s biggest aircraft, A380. Over 60 of more than 4000 pilots employed by Emirates Airlines and Group are females. More than a third of the 3,770 employees at flydubai, Middle East’s fastest-growing LCC, are female with more than 1,000 female Cabin Crew members and more than 30 female Captains and First Officers. Etihad Airways currently employs over 2,850 Emirati women, including 50 female pilots and also the first Emirati woman registered as a specialist in aviation medicine. Air Arabia’s women employees include the first female Emirati holder of a multi-crew pilots (MPL) license.

Women in Aviation Middle East General Assembly

The 4th Women in Aviation (WIA) Middle East General Assemblywill be held in Dubai on 1 May alongside the 19th edition of the Airport Show.The event will focus on the growing contribution of women in aviation globallyand share best practices from around the world for over 400 attendees expectedat the Dubai event. Key sessions will focus on initiatives that can help womensucceed in the aviation workplace and help organisations meet ICAO’s genderparity goals. Sessions will also focus on the influence of social media in the changingworkplace and work-life balance issues with respect to female employment, aswell as provide a systematic guide on how to enhance gender equality in theaviation workplace. The conference will also look at the role women are playingin the development of the region’s ambitious space programmes, especially inthe United Arab Emirates.

Mervat Sultan, one of the first Arab women to obtain aflight dispatcher’s license and a co-founder and president of the Middle Eastchapter of Women in Aviation (WIA) International, said: “Just over five percentof the commercial pilots flying worldwide are females. The Middle East’s sharehas not been encouraging, but things are changing. Being a woman in theaviation industry shouldn’t be about gender, but only about hard work andability. The barriers are disappearing as women have been successfullydestroying the stereotypes. Today, we can see an increasing number of women inaviation and aerospace, but still they are vastly under-represented. Theopportunities are greater now than the past. Without any doubts, women in thecoming time would be scripting a different success story altogether. It’ssomewhat a slow and steady process and debates will help us in taking crucialdecisions towards this end.”

Merwat will be addressing the WIA General Assembly in Dubai.The event will also feature keynotes from His Royal Highness Prince Fahd binMishaal Al-Saud, vice-chairman of Saudi Aviation Club (SAC) and chairman of GCCAviation Authority, and Sheikha Al Maskari, Chief Innovation Officer of the UAESpace Agency. Other confirmed speakers include industry experts from Air BP,Boeing, LFV, Saudi Air Navigation Services, MSI Air, Dubai AerospaceEnterprise, UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Safran, Honeywell andEtihad Airways, amongst others.

Estimates from the International Society of Women AirlinePilots show there are 7,409 women pilots across the world accounting for 5.2percent of total pilot workforce. Women make up about five per cent of the53,000 members of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), the world’s largestpilot union. It estimates that between three and six percent of pilots at theworld’s largest commercial airlines are women. Representation of women on theICAO Council is seven out of 36 members and the organisation is committed to50-50 gender parity by 2030.

For more information on attending the Women in Aviation (WIA) Middle East General Assembly in Dubai on 1st May, please contact Daksha Patel on daksha@nicheideas.net