It’s International Women’s Day today so we thought we would celebrate this by introducing you to some of our amazing female student pilots who have trained with us recently. We asked these women in aviation why they decided to become pilots and they have very kindly shared their stories with us.

Did you know that less than 5% of pilots are female, and every female Captain in the world would be able to fit in an Airbus A380? With these startling statistics in mind, we are very proud of our Graduates who are flying the flag for women in aviation and are determined to increase this statistic.

Here are some of their stories…

Greta Egan

“I was on an Aer Lingus flight to Rome when I was about ten years old and was allowed to visit the cockpit during the flight. The pilots were amazing and explained what everything was and from that moment onwards all I’ve ever wanted to be is a pilot. I’ve been obsessed with planes ever since!”

Rós Sigurðardóttir

“I was 12 years old and my school asked us to paint us in our future jobs, I came home really excited to tell my dad that I had decided to become a flight attendant. He just looked at me and asked why I wanted to be a flight attendant when I could sit in the front and be a pilot. He gave me my first flying lesson on my 17th birthday and now I am here so extremely grateful for my father.”

Sarah Dunglinson

“I decided to be a pilot because my Dad was a British Airways Captain, so I’d always been bought up with aviation in my life. The stories that he would tell me really inspired me into thinking it was something I’d love to do as a career – I couldn’t think of anything better than getting paid to do something I love!”

Marija Mazajeva

“10 years ago I joined Ryanair as a cabin crew and already when I started I was very curious about a pilot job, in a sense how it really works. But during my first years of working as a cabin crew I was just dreaming about it. After I’ve seen some cabin crew colleagues who made their way to the pilot seat, I decided to try and to go for a PPL first. After I got it, I continued slowly step by step with modular training.

After finishing the high school it would never come to my mind to become a pilot, as it’s very uncommon worldwide, and even less in my country (Latvia). However, I remember myself being very jealous of my friend, whose father was a pilot, and she had a chance to travel in the flight deck. Or when my elder brother was playing computer games, flying F18 and I was monitoring the artificial horizon.”

Karlotta Guðjónsdóttir

“I was always interested in the aviation industry and my grandfather was an air traffic controller. My grandfather definitely helped me find my passion as I was always very interested in his aviation stories. I started university after graduating from college but my mind was always at the airport next to the university. After one year I decided to follow my heart I and finished my ATC student license & my commercial pilot license a few years later. I am so happy that I made this decision as it has led me to the place where I am today.”