Aviation India: Careers

The flight from Prem Mathur, the first Indian woman to become a commercial pilot more than 50 years ago, to the youngest commercial pilot, 18-year-old Japji Kaur Cheema, has been a long one but women are finally chasing their lofty dreams.
At the Sabena Airline Training Center in the US, three girls from diverse backgrounds have finished their first solos. Tanvitha, a 21-year-old from Bangalore is a BE in mechanical engineering. Shiv Priya Kapur, 23, has abandoned boring hotel management for her thrilling new career while Kanika Mehra, an electrical engineering graduate from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, is realising a childhood dream to fly with parental approval.
Once their training — sponsored by SpiceJet is over — they'll join the growing ranks of professional women pilots in the country.
That the doors of the cockpit are opening to the fairer sex is vouched for by flying schools. Captain Mamta, who runs Fly Tech Aviation in Hyderabad, says the intake of women trainees has increased by 10-12% in the last two years. Recalling her own days as a student, she says, “From one or two women in a batch of 100 students, it's now around 10 or 12."
Indian has 76 women pilots, and the number is rising with every new batch. Forty of Air Deccan's 496 pilots are women, says Pratyasha Singh, the airline's corporate communications officer. Even the crew shuttle buses at its Chennai base are driven by women.
Kingfisher, which has 26 women from a total of 390 pilots, got its first woman captain just recently.
And with so much interest in aviation, how come women have not yet ventured into another uncharted territory — flying helicopters?
"Choppers have attracted few women as compared to fixed wing aircrafts because they are riskier and the pay isn't as lucrative," explains D A Yadav, public relations manager of Pawan Hans. But the winds of change are blowing here as well. After a gap of many years, the company is now getting ready to welcome its first woman pilot into the fold.
17/06/07 Amrita Singh & Neelam Raaj/Times of India