Category Archives: women in aviation

WAI has announced the opening of its 2022 scholarships. In 2021, WAI awarded 149 scholarships valued at $731,805 that included 47 scholarships awarded through a $250,000 Conrad N. Hilton Foundation grant. The total amount of scholarships awarded by WAI since 1995 is now more than $14.5 million. In a news release, WAI said, “Currently, thereRead More

Anne Lewis was a trailblazer in aviation, serving as the first female pilot in the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) and the first woman to hold a commercial pilot license in Western Australia. She came from a family of aviators and has called Tasmania’s north-west home for the past 15 years. Her father ran anRead More

A 19-year-old is paving the way for girls in STEM by setting the record for the youngest woman to fly solo around the world next month. Belgian-British Zara Rutherford sets off on her 51,000-km journey in her bespoke Shark ultralight plane, the world’s fastest microlight, in August. Once complete, Rutherford will be the youngest personRead More

Shaesta Waiz, the youngest woman to fly solo around the world in a single-engine aircraft, launched a new podcast, AVIATE with Shaesta, July 30 to showcase women in aviation. The podcast highlights female role models in aviation, encourages women to make their voices heard in the aviation industry, embraces diversity, motivates women to travel andRead More

When Luciana Selmi Marques’s husband, a private pilot, takes off in his small plane, she is a willing passenger. She has considered taking lessons herself, but for the moment is more interested in the materials that help them get airborne. An engineer for Embraer at its headquarters in Sao Jose dos Campos, Selmi Marques hasRead More

The fifth edition of the Women in Aviation (WIA) Middle East Chapter’s General Assembly, held as a co-located event of the 20th edition of the Airport Show at Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), has awarded scholarships worth over US$50,000 and honored women who are helping the aviation industry gain gender diversity. For the first time,Read More

Women in Aviation International’s Girls in Aviation Day (GIAD) will return to in-person events across the globe in September 2021, and the Aviation for Girls App will also continue! WAI chapters and corporate members will be free to host in-person events for girls ages 8-17 this year, as their local health guidance allows. WAI willRead More

Chapman Freeborn has appointed Sharon Vaz-Arab, aviation expert with 30+ years of experience, as its new Director – IMEA (India, Middle East & Africa). Sharon, known throughout the aviation world as ‘Sherry’, arrives at the company following 26 years at Cargolux Airlines, where she began in sales and progressed to Director of Middle East andRead More

Constance von Muehlen has been named as Alaska Airlines’ new chief operating officer, effective immediately. She replaces Gary Beck, who is retiring. Constance von Muehlen, chief operating officer Alaska Airlines A 30-year aviation veteran and the airline’s first female operations chief, von Muehlen will report to newly appointed chief executive Ben Minicucci, who assumes theRead More

Navy veteran Constance “Connie” Robinson continues her lifelong aviation infatuation at Boeing’s Aurora Flight Services in Bridgeport by doing quality work on helicopters, as well as other state-of-the-art projects. Robinson has been with Aurora Flight Services for the past 12 years and, before that, worked for about five years at Pratt & Whitney before movingRead More