Captain Hanadi Zakaria al-Hindi is the first Saudi woman to become a commercial airline pilot. She was born in Mecca, and passed her final exams at the Middle East Academy for Commercial Aviation in Amman, Jordan on 15 June 2005. She has a ten-year contract with Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding Company as a chief captain of his private jet, the Kingdom. Reports highlighted the irony that a Saudi woman is allowed to pilot an aeroplane but may not drive a car.
Hanadi Zakaria Al-Hindi will visit hospital later this month in a bid to cure a kidney problem that is hindering her promising career. She could not say whether the operation would lead to the whole kidney being removed or only part of it. The procedure, which takes up to four hours, usually has a good chance of success. Al-Hindi, who has already been offered a job as a flying instructor in case her dreams to become a pilot are shattered, hopes that she will be able to fly eventually.
