Indian women lead way closing gender gap in aviation industry

When Hana Mohsin Khan decided to switch careers and become a pilot around six years ago, she stepped into a male-dominated industry where women are trying to reverse the trend.

She pushed through despite discouragements from her relatives and the 33-year-old is now among more than 1,000 female pilots in India, the highest proportion globally according to an estimate by the International Society of Women Airline Pilots.

Women make up in excess 12 percent of all pilots in the south Asian country, more than double compared to the US, the world’s largest aviation market.

“India offers an inspiring story for female pilots,” Khan, who formerly worked in media and event management, told Arab News.

“Girls from small towns and cities are now aspiring and dreaming big. It is they who want to become pilots.”

India’s aviation industry made headlines upon reaching new heights in gender equality, despite the country ranking 135th among 146 nations on the 2022 Global Gender Gap Index by the World Economic Forum.

With the country’s history of discrimination against women, Khan said that women’s representation in aviation “sends a different message.”

Over the years, she has received inquiries from girls throughout the country inspired by her achievements.

“When someone tells me I am her inspiration, I feel I have achieved more than what I have aspired to do,” Khan said.

Operations director at Flying Academy India, Suresh Kumar Elangovan, told Arab News that government incentives, including scholarships, had also motivated Indian women to try their hand at becoming professional pilots.

“Seventy percent of students who get recruited are women,” he said. “Women are getting more preferences from airlines if you look at the hiring trend.”

Studies showed that female pilots had fewer safety incidents compared to their male counterparts.

Elangovan noted that most candidates at Flying Academy, a flight school with bases in the US and Europe, came from rural areas, adding that financial status had not deterred the aspiring pilots from achieving their goals.

“The new aspirational generation wants to explore uncharted territory,” he said.

India has had a long history of recruiting female pilots and is reaping fruits from those early efforts today, former executive director of flag carrier Air India, Jitendra Bhargava, said.

When the country’s public pilot training institute, Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi, was established in the 1980s, “a couple of seats were reserved for girls” by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and the trend continued in the private sector.

“That was another contributing factor in the growth of female pilots,” Bhargava added. “Some of the girl children of female pilots also opted for their mothers’ career.”

Girls from all walks of life were encouraged to pursue a career in aviation, and “the biggest enabler is the banking loan that they get easily,” Bhargava said.

“All these have a multiplier effect in the growth of female pilots in India.”