Female pilots, already the rarest birds in the sky, are seeing their numbers dwindle to troubling lows as COVID-19 lingers and airlines continue to shed staff during these turbulent times.  And while no one is suggesting commercial female pilots are on the verge of extinction, some worry the gains they’ve made in the male-dominated aviation industry over the past few decades may be wiped out post-pandemic.
Commercial female pilots, who make up just 5.3 per cent of industry globally, lack the seniority of their male counterparts, and thus are being furloughed at a much faster rate due to the “last in, first out” policy employed by most major airlines.

Statistics compiled from various sources paint a dark picture for aviators:
• About 600 female pilots flying in the U.S. were furloughed in October alone;
• Of the 3,645 pilots furloughed at American and Delta Air Lines as of mid-November, 6.7 per cent were female;
• Hong Kong-based Cathay Dragon, whose female pilots represented 5.87 per cent of its total, ceased operations in November;
• Air Canada, which saw its Q3 (2020) revenues drop a staggering 86 per cent, is contemplating even more pilot furloughs in 2021;
• By the end of the pandemic, industry insiders fear the female pilot population will be reduced to 2016 levels — just 3 per cent of the workforce at the time;
• A  spokesman for American Airlines’ pilot union predicts female pilots at that carrier will slip post-furlough to 4.9 per cent from the current 5.1 per cent.
That’s an astonishing reversal of fortunes for a community  whose numbers, while small, were steadily increasing over the past decade as airlines hired and trained more female pilots to meet the expanding needs of global air travel,  which was growing at a record rate of 5 per cent annually, pre-pandemic.

Now, with a glut of experienced pilots expected post-pandemic, and an industry not expected to return to profitability until 2024 at the earliest, the 804,000 new pilot jobs that were supposed to be generated over the next 20 years are in a holding pattern.
That’s bad news for the 9,746 commercial female pilots now employed globally and the many more women hoping to make aviation a career.
“This year (2020) we were meant to launch a great big campaign (to recruit female pilots), which we have just put on hold because of what has happened,” said Australian pilot Davida Forshaw, who heads education and outreach at the Las Vegas-based International Society of Women Airline Pilots (ISA+21).
Airlines are following suit. For instance, Germany’s flag carrier Lufthansa has temporarily stopped training new pilots and has no active initiative to attract more women because of their personnel surplus. And England’s discount carrier EasyJet, which reached its target of 20 per cent female new-entrant pilots in 2019, says it’s paused all pilot recruiting and is not clear when it will begin taking on new staff again.

Above: Emirates Airlines recently celebrated an all-female flight crew that included Canadian Captain Heather Wolf, right, Ellen Roz, of the U.S., left, and Heidi McDiarmid, from Australia, centre.

“If airlines cut between 1 and 5 per cent of their female pilots, that will mean a loss of 20 per cent of the gains we’ve made over the past 10 years,” said First Officer Erin Jackson, a pilot with American Airlines and Communications Director for ISA+21 (the +21 represents the group’s 21 founding members).  
The disparity between female and male commercial pilots becomes more evident when you compare them to other professions. For instance, while females make up just 5.3 per cent of commercial pilots globally, 44 per cent of medical doctors are women, 29 per cent of all scientists are females and 21 per cent of engineers are women. Heavens, even 33 per cent of astronauts are females!
ISA+21, established in 1978 to “inspire, support and to advocate for female pilots” globally, boasts an active membership of 670 — 15 from Canada — and represents female pilots at 90 airlines in 35 countries. It also helps young women entering the aviation industry through educational seminars and scholarships; ISA+21 handed out $100,000 in endowments in 2019.
“In recessions and global events, it’s the aviation industry that’s always the first to be hit and the last to come back,” said Jackson, who has five children and was inspired to become a pilot at a young age.
“I was lucky enough to get a ride on the Goodyear blimp when I was very young and one of the pilots was a woman,” remembers Jackson. “That’s what inspired me to become a pilot.”

Above: Many female pilots fear the gains they've made over the past 10 years will be wiped out because of the cutbacks they are facing right now.

The cutbacks among female pilots are just another setback for women operating in an industry that has been criticized for paying only “lip service” to diversity programs and for not including more women in top management jobs. And while female pilots are rare, those who reach the rank of captain at major airlines is even fewer — just 1.4 per cent of all airline captains are female, according to the ISA+21.
Canadian airlines stack up better than most when it comes to hiring female pilots.  WestJet, in fact, employs the third highest percentage of female pilots globally, 7.1 per cent,   while Air Canada’s more than 200 female pilots represents about 6 per cent of its pilot total.
Air Canada, WestJet and some of Canada’s major charter carriers have teamed up with the country’s top universities and colleges to establish programs that will help inspire more females to pursue careers in aviation.
Some airlines even celebrate the achievements of their female pilots. For the past five years, for instance, in the weeks leading up to International Women’s Day, Air Canada proudly schedules a flight operated entirely by female pilots and crew.
On International Women’s Day in 2020, the flight deck aboard an Emirates SkyCargo plane was manned by a crew of all female pilots, one of whom was Canadian Heather Wolf. Captain Wolf and her fellow female crew — Captain Ellen Roz from the U.S. and First Officer Heidi McDiarmid from Australia — piloted their Boeing 777 across four continents carrying three tonnes of cargo.
At the time, Emirates released a statement saying: “Women are making an increasing contribution to the aviation industry worldwide and are also directly supporting global exchanges in diverse areas facilitated by aviation such as international trade.”
Airlines based in the Middle East, however, have the fewest females occupying their flight decks. Of Emirates’ estimated 4,300 pilots, just 1.5 per cent are women. Compare that to India, where, despite a society that has frowned on women doing such jobs in the past, females now make up 12 per cent of its 8,000 commercial pilots, the highest proportion in the world. Over the next 20 years, India expects the demand for pilots within its borders will reach 28,000 and are training more women now to fill those cockpits.
America’s airlines employ the most female pilots in the world but the percentage at each of the major U.S. carriers remains low. In fact, just 4.5 per cent of Delta’s 14,800 pilots are female, while 7.4 per cent of female pilots make up United’s 16,000 total. Similarly, only 4.4 per cent of American Airlines’ 18,500 pilots are females and Southwest Airlines has 393 women pilots, which represents 4.7 per cent of its total.
There are a number of issues that restrict female pilots from advancing as quickly as their male co-pilots. One of the biggest irritants for female flyers is scheduling, where pilots are expected to spend as many as 15 nights a month away from home. That can cause issues for women flyers, who usually shoulder more caregiving duties on the home front. Many female pilots have been able to use flex time to help manage those family duties, but that also slows their progress toward promotions, according to a study in the International Journal of Aviation Management.
Several U.S. female pilots, who sought anonymity for fear of losing their jobs, told Bloomberg News recently that they’re also penalized financially by such policies as mandatory safety-related groundings during pregnancy. This results in an effective pay cut of as much as 30 per cent during the pregnancy, due to the loss of supplemental flying pay based on hours in the air.
Many of those issues can be resolved at the bargaining table but female pilots are, for the most part, still being underrepresented in unions and their issues are not being addressed properly.
“That is changing,” says Jackson, who remains optimistic about her career and the industry overall.
By the end of this pandemic, airline groups estimate 4.8 million aviation workers worldwide are at risk of losing their jobs. Female pilots are an endangered species that must be protected.