Flynas to ‘soon’ become first Saudi Arabian airline with female co-pilots

Saudi Arabian budget airline Flynas is planning to hire female nationals in co-pilot roles as the kingdom aspires for higher participation of women in the job market to boost economic growth.

The airline will begin accepting applications “soon”, said Bandar AlMohanna, chairman of Flynas.

It will become the first Saudi carrier to employ women in high-ranking roles, he said. The airline has not set a target for how many women co-pilots it will recruit nor specified a timeline for when they will start working, said a company spokeswoman.

The kingdom, which is undertaking wide-ranging economic reforms, aims to increase women participation in the labour force to 30 per cent from the current 22 per cent by 2030. In June, Saudi Arabia overturned a driving ban on women, improving their mobility and easing access to the workforce as it tries to reduce unemployment among nationals.

The country is training women to work as air-traffic controllers for the first time to certify them for jobs in Riyadh and Jeddah.

Flynas, which is partly owned by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding, forecasts a 10 per cent growth in earnings this year after a flat fiscal year in 2016-17 due to sluggish conditions in the regional economy and the wider aviation industry, it said in April.

Established in 2007, the carrier operates a fleet of 30 aircraft and flies to 17 domestic and 53 international destinations, according to its website.

The global aviation industry is grappling with a stark gender imbalance in top positions that continue to be dominated by men. A report by the International Air Transport Association in March said only 3 per cent of airlines have a female chief executive. This compares with 12 per cent on average in other industries.

In the Middle East, the number of women in senior aviation executive roles is the lowest in the world, at 4 per cent. The second-lowest is in Asia-Pacific at 7 per cent.