Props to Singapore Airlines for finally getting on board with hiring women to fly its planes. Everyone else has already done it, including SilkAir and Scoot, making SIA the last Singapore passenger carrier to get with the times. It’s also quite possibly the last major global airline to hire female pilots — even budget ones like Jetstar Asia and Tigerair have beat it to the punch. ‘Bout time, guys.
The two ladies responsible for this monumental shift joined the SIA intake of cadet pilots last August, and will train in Singapore and Australia for two to three years before being scheduled for commercial flights. As of yet, there’s no target for the number of female hires to be added to the airline’s current population of 2,000 pilots.
But even with SIA’s contribution to the numbers, female pilots still stand at less than one percent of the total among Singapore carriers. According to the International Society of Women Airline Pilots, this falls way below the global average of five percent.
Captain Priya Doobaree of Jetstar Asia said it best, when describing the challenges of being accepted in a male-dominated industry to The Straits Times: “Once, when I did a flight announcement, someone put it on Twitter.”
Well, here’s to a slowly changing mindset.
More from Coconuts Singapore:
– Viral: Newlywed puts up hilariously bad selects from disastrous wedding photo album
– Impression that Singapore was a sleepy fishing village in 1965 gets skewered
– Food: All-new ‘Caveman Supper’ features massive platter of meats
– Event: FoodCine.ma highlights films on food with screenings, pairings and exhibitions
– Viral: Photo project about beautiful women from different countries annoys the ugly people of Singapore
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