Female pilots from the Philippines could help Asia's travel boom

The Philippines’ largest flight school is trying to bring more women into the cockpit to help meet a shortage of pilots in Asia. At Alpha Aviation Group’s campus in Pampanga province north of the capital, 1 in 5 of its 550 students each year are women, whereas only about 3% of the world’s pilots are female, founder Bhanu Choudhrie said. Choudhrie said the group holds recruitment programs at universities and invites female pilots to give career talks to students to encourage more women to apply. These initiatives aim to dispel the notion in the Philippines that only men can apply to flight school, he added. Boeing estimates Asia will require 266,000 more pilots by 2038, a third of the global shortage, as travel booms faster in the region than anywhere else. <br/>