Emirati female pilot who flies A380s, one of the world's largest passenger aircraft - via Gulf News
Abu Dhabi: Regularly flying across the world, traversing different time zones and flying the world’s largest passenger aircraft — the Airbus A380 — is all in a day’s work for Emirati pilot Aisha Al Mansouri, a senior first officer with Etihad Airways.
It all started when her sister, who was already a pilot, took her to an air show in Al Ain.
“While visiting the event there were some people working there who told me that a national cadet programme was opening at Etihad, so I looked into the programme and decided to join, and within eight months I was hired.”
Her first flight on the job was on an Airbus A320 to Ammam, Jordan.
“I had already done so much flight training — including flying a Cessna 172 — but once I was in the cockpit it was a very different feeling.”
Women can be whatever they want to be, that’s what I think my example shows. All women should follow a career path that inspires and makes them happy
- Aisha Al Mansouri
She flew the A320 for five years before eventually moving up to bigger aircraft like the A330 and, the biggest of all, the A380.
“Flying the A380 is amazing, it’s a huge plane, but it handles like an A320, it reacts very well and is really enjoyable to fly.”
Describing her job as more of a lifestyle than work, she added: “One of the unique things about being a pilot is that it is more than just a job, as a pilot you need to manage your lifestyle accordingly to be able to handle all of the long haul flights and the different time zones that come with it.
“The thing I try to concentrate on before I have long flights is to make sure that I am well rested, that’s the most important thing for me. The night flights are usually the tricky ones, for example if I have to fly at 3am I have to basically sleep during the day or afternoon.”
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