Nearly 6,800 women are now licensed aviation professionals in South Africa, up from about 5,000 two years ago, although women remain under-represented in specialised technical careers.
Transport Minister Barbara Creecy revealed the figures at the 2026 National Aviation Gender Summit in Pretoria on Thursday, where she called for greater efforts to move women into professions including piloting, engineering, aircraft maintenance and other specialised aviation roles.
South Africa now has more than 33,500 licensed aviation professionals, with women accounting for just over 20% of the total.
Two years ago, the country had just over 25,800 licensed aviation professionals, including approximately 5,000 women licence holders.
“Women now account for just over 20% of all licensed aviation personnel in South Africa and that is progress we should acknowledge,” Creecy said.
“However, these figures also remind us of where our greatest challenges remain, as they are still too low. We continue to see large under-representation of women in highly specialised professions or technical fields within the aviation sector. This needs to change.”
More women choose aviation careers
One of the strongest indicators of future change is emerging among student pilots, where women now account for more than a quarter of South Africa’s student pilot population.
Creecy said this means the focus must begin shifting from simply convincing young women to consider aviation towards ensuring they can complete their training, find employment and progress through the industry.
“It is no longer simply about encouraging women to enter the field; it is about ensuring that they complete their training, secure meaningful employment, progress into leadership positions and remain within the profession long enough to become captains, chief engineers, regulators, executives and mentors for the generations that follow,” she said.
The opportunity is expected to grow alongside Africa’s aviation sector, which will require more pilots, engineers, air traffic controllers, airport professionals, safety and security specialists and regulators.
Creecy said women must therefore be deliberately included in the skills pipelines, training opportunities, recruitment strategies and leadership pathways accompanying that growth.
Training pipeline expands
A number of aviation institutions are already increasing women’s participation in training.
During the 2024/25 financial year, the Airports Company South Africa Aviation Academy trained more than 6,400 aviation professionals, including over 2,500 women.
Young women received 44% of bursaries for programmes including Aeronautical Engineering, Aircraft Maintenance Engineering and Pilot Training, as well as learnerships in Business Administration and Software Development.
More than 70% of the current South African Civil Aviation Authority internship programme intake are women.
Air Traffic and Navigation Services is also using bursary and trainee programmes to develop its future workforce.
During the first quarter of the current financial year, 25 young people were recruited for air traffic services training, with 13, or 52%, being women.
Five of the six candidates currently undergoing technician training are women, while women make up 51% of the broader Air Traffic Service staff component at ATNS.
Women increase presence at SAA
South African Airways is also recording significant female participation across parts of its operational workforce.
As of 7 August 2026, women comprised 66.7% of SAA’s cabin crew workforce, with 368 women compared with 184 men.
Representation remains considerably lower on the flight deck.
Of SAA’s 289 pilots, 54 are women, representing 18.7% of its pilot corps.
When pilots and cabin crew are considered together, however, the airline has reached near gender parity, with 422 women and 419 men. Women therefore constitute 50.2% of these operational roles.
Women-owned businesses secure contracts
The push for greater participation is also extending into aviation procurement and entrepreneurship.
During the 2025/26 financial year, the Department of Transport awarded 317 of its 460 contracts to women-owned enterprises.
Those contracts were valued at R312.3 million and represented 96.5% of the total value awarded by the department.
SACAA spent more than R54 million on goods and services from women-owned SMMEs during the same financial year.
Airports Company South Africa also contracted 118 black women-owned businesses during 2025/26 as part of its focused procurement programme.
Creecy said these investments form part of efforts to transform the sector while preparing it for future growth.
The Seventh Administration has set targets for 42 million passengers and 1.2 million tons of air freight to move through ACSA’s airport network by 2029.
For South Africa, the growing number of women entering pilot training, internships, technical programmes and aviation businesses provides an expanding pipeline.
The challenge now is converting that pipeline into substantially more women becoming pilots, engineers, technicians, executives and other specialised professionals across South African aviation.
