Female Pilots in the Middle East?

[H-D]

Starting the search for my first civvie career and wondering if as a female I can apply to Emirates or any other Middle Eastern Airlines. There appears to be nothing on the website to say no, but I don't want to waste precious time filling in an application form if there is no chance of making it to interview. Also if there are any females out there did they find the training difficult due to their gender in comparison to a Western Airline?

Please don't start a guys v girls fight here.... I just have little experience dealing with arabs in a work environment and not sure how they view us.

Thanks for your replys!

I have 3500hrs with command experience on C130, glass cockpit.

[Beechslave]

There is another thread out there about female pilots at Emirates and there are some so obviously no problems there. I am also 100% certain that Etihad has female pilots. Not sure about other ME countries but I'm going to take a wild guess and say it would be hard for females to land a flying job.

[oz in dxb]

putting an application would not be a waste of time beechslave.
EK already has female pilots.

Not too sure about your C130 time. You would need to have pure jet time.
Maby I'm wrong

Oz

[Instant Hooligan]

No restrictions on females at EK, admittedly there are only now a handful here but 4000hrs total time with 2000 multi crew jet may be an issue.
http://www.emiratescareers.com/
Good luck.

[tbaylx]

As long as you meet the experience requirements i'm sure you will be considered the same as anyone else.

EK has a few female pilots now, the ones i've spoken with haven't seemed to indicate they had a rough time of it. 95% of the people you fly with at EK are expats here anyway, so you'd have the same treatment that you could expect in the UK once online. If you've dealt with the military then EK should be a breeze.

[H-D]

Thanks

Great to get such quick replies!

Most airlines seem happy with C130 hrs and the 4000 may not be a problem when I have added in the taxy time that us mil types don't count in our hours and Emirates say they are considering applicants with less than 4000hrs, most of my hours are mutli-crew from C130.

I guess I will put in the app and see.... wonder if I can progress to LHS again....

[Bredrin]

Emirates, Air Arabia and Etihad all have female pilots. Good luck.

[MrMachfivepointfive]

QR too

I believe Qatar was faster than EK and EY to hire female pilots. Anyway: No problem. Also there are a couple of female F/O and captains in middle east business aviation as well. Anybody met captain Taq? (shiver!)

[ferris]

Bahrain Air has at least 1 female pilot.

[sirwa69]

My mate lives next door to a Gulf Air female pilot.
She's been with then for over a year now and she says she has no problems. Lovely litle slip of a girl from Belgium.

On On

[Captain_djaffar]

Candidates who are up to 500 hours below total and/or multi-engine jet hours are invited to submit their applications and may be offered the opportunity to attend a selection programme in Dubai. Successful candidates must, however, meet published minimum hours requirements prior to joining.

http://www.emiratescareers.com/

In the flight deck crew side menu,Short of our Minimum Hours Requirement section.
Can anyone please explain what they mean with

candidates must, however, meet published minimum hours requirements prior to joining.

thanks

[616200]

It means that you need to have 4000 TT and 2000 JET to join but you can be 500 hours short of this requirement for your interview,provided you'll meet the minimum requirement upon joining...

[botaxgendeng]

female pilot in ME

yes they have some, even capts on 320.
but you need jet time. in ME some times is depend on your luck coz they change rules anytime.
one capt got lucky coz fom ATR now flying 320,
they Instructor should notice even only prop if they could handle jet on the sim assesment and other criteria why so crazy about jet time.
good luck

[Wizofoz]

At least in the past, EK has excepted Turbo prop time in 55T+ aircraft in leau of jet time.

[Sal-e]

Need ATPL licence and a couple of thousand hours will be all that is needed soon. Gulf Air has two female pilots, more at EK.

[bigmanatc]

Even some local fighter jocks about to go solo...times they are a changin...

[411A]

Royal Jordanian was the first, I believe, in the region, and they have several female Captains now, and at one time, a female DirOps...and I was told she took no guff from anyone.

Having operated into JED a few times with female First Officers, immigration/customs gave 'em a wide berth.
One time, as one of 'em was closing up her flight bag, I mentioned...'Ah, Loraine, the customs guy is staring at you very intently.'
She says...'Yeah, I know, he is looking right at my a**, with evil thoughts'.

[Lord Flashhart]

H-D
No problem about the girl thing, but for EK you NEED 2000 hr JET. I have a lot of mates with buckets of c130 time and they can't get a look in without the JET time.

[H-D]

Jet Time

Hmmm,

It would appear that my C130 hours may not meet the requirement then if they are crazy for the jet hours! I will prob sit back and see how the interviews go at this end in the UK.

Thanks all for comments.

[Sal-e]

Gulf Air prioritises type rated pilots and licenced nationals followed by jet experience, turboprop experience then every other pilot.
If I were you, I'd still fire away a CV because there is such a demand for pilots in the region (at least 160 for Gulf Air in the next year) that you stand a fair to good chance of getting a favourable reply.