Hanadi Zakaria al-Hindi ( ar, هنادي زكريا الهندي) is the first Saudi woman to become a pilot. She was born in

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...

in September 1978. She passed her final exams at the Middle East Academy for Commercial Aviation in

Amman Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite language, Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 a ...

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

on 15 June 2005.First Saudi Female Pilot Graduates

Arab News ''Arab News'' is an English-language daily newspaper published in Saudi Arabia. It is published from Riyadh. The target audiences of the paper, which is published in broadsheet format, are businessmen, executives and diplomats. At least as of ...

, 16 June 2005. Retrieved 21 October 2007. She has a ten-year contract with Prince

Al-Waleed bin Talal Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud ( ar, الوليد بن طلال آل سعود; born 7 March 1955) is a Saudi Arabian billionaire businessman, investor, philanthropist and royal. He was listed on ''Time'' magazine's Time 100, an annual list of the hu ...

’s

Kingdom Holding Company The Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) ( ar, شركة المملكة القابضة) is a Saudi conglomerate holding company, based in Riyadh. The KHC is a publicly listed company on the Tadawul (Saudi stock exchange). The KHC consists of a select ...

CNN Insight
January 19, 2005. as a pilot of his

private jet A business jet, private jet, or bizjet is a jet aircraft designed for transporting small groups of people. Business jets may be adapted for other roles, such as the evacuation of casualties or express parcel deliveries, and some are used by pub ...

, the ''Kingdom''. Al-Waleed is considered a proponent for female emancipation in the Saudi world, financed her training and stated on her graduation that he is "in full support of Saudi ladies working in all fields". Al-Hindi became certified to fly within Saudi Arabia in 2014. Reports highlighted the irony that a Saudi woman is allowed to pilot an aeroplane but may not drive a car (although this has changed in 2017). Al-Hindi, however, does not see this as a contradiction.

References

1978 births Living people People from Mecca Women aviators Saudi Arabian aviators Saudi Arabian women Women commercial aviators {{SaudiArabia-bio-stub