Out of over 664,000 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certificated pilots in the United States only 7.9 percent of them are women and only 4.5 percent of airline pilots are women, and those numbers have remained virtually stagnant for the last 50 years. The phrase “you can’t be what you can’t see” becomes a reality for young girls seeking female role models in a male dominated career field.
However, that is not the only problem. A Boeing study predicts that North America alone will need over 200,000 pilots for the next 20 years, and over 760,000 pilots worldwide. This paints a bleak future for women in aviation, and the industry as a whole, unless a deliberate effort is made to leverage the other half of the population and show them that becoming a pilot is an attainable goal. More girls need to be exposed to aviation during their formative years, particularly to female pilots, if we want to see real progress. That is why we need PreFlight Aviation Camp.
