The academy will consider the applications if regulations permit women to learn the skill, Abu Jouda said.
He said there would be no separate training regulations for women trainees. “The same academic rules applicable to men students will be implemented in the case of women students as well. However, women trainers will be recruited from Lebanon or the United States to teach them after getting the approval of the General Authority for Civil Aviation,” an Arabic newspaper quoted Abu Jouda as saying.
The director also thanked GACA for issuing licenses to young trainees who completed their training successfully. He said the licenses varied from 40-hour flight log to 190 hours.
The Wings is a newly established modern flight training school located in Rabigh, 115 km northwest of Jeddah on the Red Sea coast and minutes away from King Abdullah Economic City.
It offers training in 10 aircraft such as single engine Cessna 172SP G1000, Cessna 182T G1000, Piper Arrow PA-28T, Multi engine Piper Seminole PA-44T, and Piper Seneca PA-34T. All its Piper aircraft are equipped with a GNS 530 and GNS 430 GPS.
Capt. Hanadi Zakariya Hindi is the first accredited female Saudi pilot to fly planes in Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom Holding Company hired her shortly after qualifying six years ago.
“Women are very capable of taking on any job previously monopolized by men,” Hindi said at the time she was recruited by the company. She had her Commercial Pilot’s License and an Instrument Rating from the Mideast Aviation Academy in Jordan.
She said she understood the thinking behind the ban on women’s driving in Saudi Arabia, but argued that flying was different.
Capt. Yasmin Al-Maimani is the second accredited Saudi female pilot. She studied flying at the Royal Jordan Air Academy.
