IAA Launches New Scholarship to Aid Arabian Women to Build Careers in Aviation

By: GWL Team | Thursday, 29 May 2025

Under the support of Intercontinental Aviation Academy, a new scholarship program has been launched
The program is worth more than Dh500,000, and will support Arabian Women to build careers in aviation

With an intent towards assisting women from Arab countries, a new scholarship program has been launched. The program worth over Dh500,000, will support those women who wants to build careers in aviation space. This comes as an importance step since women make up only about five percent of pilots worldwide.

The program has been entitled as ‘Women in Aviation Middle East’, and is being supported by the Intercontinental Aviation Academy (IAA), aiming towards aiding women from the Middle East who might face financial challenges.

Deputy CEO for Academic Relations, Governance and Student Experience, IAA, Dr Zeina Mehyou said in an interview, “We’ve long recognised the significant gender gap in aviation, particularly in pilot roles, where women remain highly underrepresented. Over the years, we’ve actively worked to challenge the perception that aviation is a male-dominated field by emphasising that passion, determination, and skill, not gender, are what truly matter.”

He added, “However, the UAE and other countries in the region have made significant strides in promoting gender equality, and the aviation sector is a powerful example where women now represent up to 48 per cent of the workforce in certain airlines and aviation organisations.”

The academy is excited to announce its scholarship opportunities for 2025. There will be one full scholarship worth over USD 105,000 (around Dh 385,350) that covers all tuition fees and flight training needed to earn a full Airline Transport Pilot License (ATPL). Also, ten fully sponsored spots are available for the Fundamentals of Aviation course, valued at a total of about USD 35,000 (Dh128,450). These are aimed at helping young women gain a strong foundation in aviation and get an early glimpse into careers in the field.