BA's Future Pilots Programme opening for applications
The pilot cadet training course opens up once a year and has proved extremely popular in recent years attracting around 4,500 applicants with less than 100 places available for prospective pilots.
British Airways has been campaigning to attract more women to apply. While the airline has more female pilots than any other UK airline, women are still under represented in the profession with reports of just 5% of commercial pilots worldwide being female.
In a recent survey British Airways found that 63% of women said they were put off a career as a professional airline pilot when they were growing up for reasons including a lack of visible role models and being told it was a man’s job.
• 20% said when growing up, pilots were played by men on TV and in films.
• 20% said they thought women could only be cabin crew.
• 13% said they had never been on a plane flown by a female pilot.
• 10% said they were told it was a man’s job when growing up.
The British Airways Future Pilot Programme is an 18-month pilot training course open to anyone aged 18 to 55, with no prior flying experience required.
The airline expects to have approaching 4,000 pilots this year, more than it has ever had before and is looking for around 100 new cadets.
British Airways senior first officer Helen MacNamara, who is a mentor for pilot cadets, said: “I absolutely love this job and cannot recommend it highly enough to anyone – male and female. The variety of people you work with and places you go to make it such a dynamic career.
“It’s important that we raise the profile of the career so that girls can be inspired to become pilots.
“We’re looking for people, regardless of gender, with the right technical ability but also great communication and customers service skills.”
Applications can be made through ba.com/careers from 23 February.
The British Airways Future Pilot Programme helps applicants to gain a place at an approved flight training school, with successful trainees landing a job as a British Airways pilot. The programme helps students to secure funding to train as a pilot which they can pay back later in their career.
The top-flight cadets will start their training, at one of three British Airways approved flight training schools in Oxford, Southampton and Jerez in Spain. During their training, students complete their ground theory training, cockpit instrument rating and flight training, flying light aircraft in Spain, New Zealand or Arizona in the US.
