Friday, November 5, 2010

Equal opportunities at 38,000 feet


Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (CNN) -- A worldwide shortage of airline pilots has given women in Malaysia a chance to break into a profession that is notoriously male dominated.

And it's the world's fastest growing airline that claims to be giving them the opportunities. AirAsia has 17 female pilots -- not that impressive when you realize that they have 700 male counterparts-- but still not a bad record in a country that is deeply conservative.

The International Society of Women Airline Pilots estimates there are about 4,000 female pilots worldwide, out of 80,000 pilots in total -- that's 5 percent, so AirAsia's 2.4 per cent of female pilots might not sound much to boast about.


No comments: