CAE announced recently at the International Women in Aviation conference the opening of its second edition of the CAE Women in Flight scholarship program, with its first airline partner in this edition: Southwest Airlines. The objective of this unique annual scholarship program is to inspire a new generation of professional pilots among women, as well as to encourage diversity in aviation. One outstanding candidate will be selected and awarded the scholarship to train with CAE. Other airline partners will be announced in the upcoming months.

In 2019, for the first edition of the program, CAE awarded five scholarships to cadets that started their journey to become pilots with one of our global airline partners: American Airlines, Aeroméxico, AirAsia, Cityjet and easyJet.

CAE is creating role models for the next generation of professional pilots by awarding scholarships every year to its ab-initio training programs across its global training network. Each scholarship covers the entire cost of the ab-initio program, including accommodation and travel, and will be awarded to outstanding female ambassadors who will become role models to inspire more women to join the pilot profession.

“Gender diversity continues to be a high-profile topic in aviation and today; the industry is leaving half of its available pilot talent pool on the bench. We are committed to ensuring that our industry will make a difference and continue to offer these annual scholarships,” said Nick Leontidis, CAE’s Group President, Civil Aviation Training Solutions. “There is an exciting future that awaits a new generation of female pilots, and we are proud to officially launch the second edition of the CAE Women in Flight scholarship program with Southwest Airlines’ Destination 225° program. The largest U.S. domestic carrier is looking for more than 700 new professional pilots over the next 10 years, and together we are tapping into a wider pool of talent and supporting gender diversity in the aviation industry.”

“One of the reasons Southwest Airlines introduced our Destination 225° pathways is that we recognize for many, the barriers to entering this career field can be prohibitive,” said Julie Weber, Vice President and Chief People Officer at Southwest Airlines. “It’s exciting to leverage our partnership with CAE to remove one of those barriers and make it possible for aspiring female aviators to pursue their dream of a career at Southwest Airlines.”

Upon successful completion of their ab-initio training program, the selected candidates will have the opportunity to begin building experience as flight instructors, with the intent to one day fly for Southwest Airlines, subject to certain conditions.