The South African aviation industry has a statistic that all South Africa should be proud of.
Female pilots comprise 9.8% of South Africa’s pilots. This places it third in the world, after India, where women comprise 12% of all pilots, and Ireland, which has 9.9% female pilots.
At the recent 10th Anniversary Barsa Conference held at the Houghton Hotel in Johannesburg, the delegates were interested in the presentation, given by pilot and pilot instructor, Refilwe Ledwaba, about the Girls Fly Programme Africa, an initiative she started to encourage females to consider careers in aviation. She is now Executive Director of the programme.
Ledwaba founded Southern African Women in Aviation and Aerospace Industry in 2009, which later established Girls Fly Programme Africa to create a platform that educates girls about aviation and aerospace and empowers them with information and access to other women in the field, enabling gender equality in the science, technology, engineering and…