More Japanese women becoming airline pilots
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More Japanese women are entering the long male-dominated world of the commercial aviation pilot, Japan Today has reported.
Female pilots still account for less than 1% of all pilots at Japan’s major airlines, but their presence is growing. A total of nine female co-pilots are currently serving with All Nippon Airlines (ANA), with an additional 10 women under training, the report said. Japan Airlines (JAL) meanwhile accepted a female trainee for the first time in 2008 and has taken another for the current year, the report said. Through its own training programme, and through a tie-in with Japan’s Civil Aviation College, JAL now has 12 female co-pilots and trainees.
More female college students now appear to view the prospect of becoming a commercial pilot more optimistically than before, according to Masayuki Nomura, a pilot recruitment official at JAL.
“Female students come up to me and say things like ‘Your company hired a female trainee, so I would also like to try’,” Japan Today quoted Nomura as saying.
Like many other industries in Japan, the ongoing mass retirement of the baby boomer generation has put pressure on the airline industry, boosting the need for new pilots. Even more new pilots will also be required after 2010 when Tokyo’s Haneda airport plans to open its fourth runway, which is expected to boost the number of annual flights 1.4 fold from the current levels.
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