T R AV E L T R E N D S
CAPTAIN HANADI PREPARES FOR TAKEOFF
First Saudi female pilot fights for job with Saudi airline. By Caroline Hillier
Captain Hanadi Al Hindi has had many job offers from airlines around the world, but she’s turned them all down. The only country she wants to work in is Saudi Arabia, but with current restrictions, she hasn’t been able to secure a job as a commercial pilot. She’s hoping that will soon change.
MAKING HISTORY AND HEADLINES
What I learned from my dad is that you will get what you want, but not by force. You’ll get it by being patient and by being a good believer in God. -Hanadi Al Hindi
30 DESTINATION JEDDAH MAY 2017
To her surprise, it was also after that first flight that she was bombarded with media attention, something she quickly learned came along with the title of being Saudi’s first female pilot. “Every journalist was coming to do interviews, like BBC, Reuters, CNN. Everyone was calling me, from Mexico, Canada, India, everywhere!”
STAFF PHOTO / ABULRAHMAN BA’ALI
In 2005, Al Hindi became the first Saudi female pilot after finishing studies at the Middle East Academy for Commercial Aviation in Amman, Jordan. It was after her first solo flight that Al Hindi truly fell in love with flying, and decided that despite the challenges she would face, she would become a commercial pilot.