CAE Opens 2020 Women in Flight Scholarship

At the International Women in Aviation conference, CAE opened its second edition of the CAE Women in Flight scholarship program, with its first airline partner in this edition: Southwest Airlines. The objective of this annual scholarship program is to inspire a new generation of professional pilots among women, as well as to encourage diversity in aviation. One outstanding candidate will be selected and awarded the scholarship to train with CAE. Other airline partners will be announced in the upcoming months.

CAE is creating role models for the next generation ofprofessional pilots by awarding scholarships every year to its ab-initio trainingprograms across its global training network. Each scholarship covers the entirecost of the ab-initio program, including accommodation and travel, and will beawarded to outstanding female ambassadors who will become role models toinspire more women to join the pilot profession.

"Gender diversity continues to be a high-profile topicin aviation and today; the industry is leaving half of its available pilottalent pool on the bench. We are committed to ensuring that our industry willmake a difference and continue to offer these annual scholarships," saidNick Leontidis, CAE's Group President, Civil Aviation Training Solutions."There is an exciting future that awaits a new generation of femalepilots, and we are proud to officially launch the second edition of the CAEWomen in Flight scholarship program with Southwest Airlines' Destination 225°program. The largest U.S. domestic carrier is looking for more than 700 newprofessional pilots over the next 10 years, and together we are tapping into awider pool of talent and supporting gender diversity in the aviationindustry."

"One of the reasons Southwest Airlines introduced ourDestination 225° pathways is that we recognize for many, the barriers toentering this career field can be prohibitive," said Julie Weber, VicePresident and Chief People Officer at Southwest Airlines. "It's excitingto leverage our partnership with CAE to remove one of those barriers and makeit possible for aspiring female aviators to pursue their dream of a career atSouthwest Airlines."

Upon successful completion of their ab-initio trainingprogram, the selected candidates will have the opportunity to begin buildingexperience as flight instructors, with the intent to one day fly for SouthwestAirlines, subject to certain conditions.

In 2019, for the first edition of the program, CAE awardedfive scholarships to cadets that started their journey to become pilots withone of its global airline partners: American Airlines, Aeroméxico, AirAsia,Cityjet and easyJet.