Percentage of Female Airline Pilots Globally

Commercial airline pilot is an occupation that remains heavily male dominated, though numbers of female pilots are slowly increasing. Using data from the nonprofit International Society of Women Airline Pilots, this chart shows the airlines that employ the most and least female pilots as both captains and first officers on the flight deck. Airlines in India lead with the highest percentages of female pilots in their workforce, while Asian and Middle Eastern airlines tend to have the lowest. Of the four major air carriers in America, United leads at 7.4%, Delta at 5.3%, American Airlines at 5%, and Southwest at 4.1%. The global average hovers at just under 6%.

All airlines shown have a total pilot count (male and female combined) of 260 or more. Porter Airlines, based in Canada, is the smallest airline shown, with 260 pilots. American Airlines is the largest, with 15,306 total pilots.

Smaller, regional airlines tend to employ more women pilots. Many of the regionals are subsidiaries of the majors, such as Air India Express, which operates as the low-cost subsidiary carrier of Air India.

NOTE: Spirit Airlines filed for bankruptcy on November 18, 2024. Vistara merged with Air India on November 12, 2024.

This data was gathered by ISA in early 2020 and does not represent all airlines since some data on female pilot percentages could not be accessed. Ryanair and Turkish Airlines data is from 2023 and was accessed from online sources.