History made as flight takes off with all-female crew in Saudi
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JEDDAH: Flyadeal, Saudi Arabia's low-cost airline has announced its first flight with an all-women crew. The domestic flight flew from Riyadh to Jeddah with a complete female crew, most of whom were Saudis.
On Friday, Flyadeal made the announcement on the airline's official Twitter account @flyadeal, "For the first time in Saudi aviation history! #flyadeal operated the first flight with an all-female crew, the majority of which are Saudis by the newest A320 aircraft. Flight 117, flew from #Riyadh to #Jeddah".
In the last few years, Saudi women have proven their competency in carriers that were previously dominated by men. This included the aviation industry.
This historical flight, Flight 117 was co-piloted by Saudi's youngest pilot Yara Jan, 23, and carried a crew of seven.
Speaking to Arab News, Jan said that she was ecstatic to be a part of history in the making, this being such a moment in aviation for Saudi women.
"As a Saudi woman trying to lead my country with a proud step it was a moment of pride and joy."
Jan joined Flyadeal last year after completing her flight school graduation in Florida, US in 2019.
She said that being the co-pilot means assisting the pilot in many key role tasks such as navigation and completing many checklists.
Acknowledging the profound moment, she spoke about the importance of such moment for a young Saudi women, the Arab News reported.
"Although being a Saudi woman pilot is new, it is not impossible for our generation, especially with the backing that we are receiving from our beloved country and our respected leaders, who have supported me a lot to become the youngest female pilot in a Saudi airline. I will always be pleased to have the chance to make a positive change."
Although the numbers of Saudi female pilots are growing, here names stand out as the pioneers for this change. Hanadi Zakaria Al-Hindi, the first female pilot to fly with a Saudi commercial pilot license; Rawia Al-Rifi the first to fly an Airbus A320 internationally as a civil aircraft from the UAE; and co-pilot Yasmin Al-Maimani, who was the first woman to co-pilot a commercial plane in the Kingdom.