Cape Town, South Africa: The release of the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) Annual Report for 2024/2025 in December 2025 offers more than a compliance snapshot. It holds up a mirror to the aviation industry and asks uncomfortable but necessary questions about who still gets to fly, fix and control aircraft in South Africa. At first glance, the headline figure appears modestly encouraging. Women now constitute 13 percent of licensed pilots, up from 12 percent the previous year. A one percent increase is, technically, progress. But in an industry that prides itself on precision, safety margins and long-term planning, incrementalism of this nature should worry us.
When one steps back and considers all licences issued by the SACAA – pilots, air traffic services personnel and aircraft maintenance engineers – the picture becomes clearer and more troubling. Of the 26 642 licences issued, 20 999 are held by men and only 5 643 by women. Add to this the 6 624 licences issued to foreign nationals who train in South Africa. That translates to roughly 87 percent male and 13 percent female representation across the licensed aviation workforce. This is not a pipeline problem in the abstract. It is a structural outcome.
ICAO’s Next Generation of Aviation Professionals programme is explicit in its aspirations. Aviation cannot be sustainable if it continues to draw from a narrow demographic pool. Gender balance is not an act of charity, but a strategic imperative tied to safety, innovation and resilience. The International Air Transport Association, the African Civil Aviation Commission and the African Union have all echoed similar sentiments, situating aviation transformation within broader continental development goals such as Agenda 2063. South Africa, with its constitutional mandate to transform all spheres of society, should be leading this conversation rather than lagging behind it.
A closer look at the numbers of licensed personnel (pilots, aircraft maintenance engineers, air traffic services and cabin crew), particularly through the lenses of race and gender, reveals how deeply entrenched patterns remain. Across all licensed personnel, African males number 3 451 compared to 2 368 African females. On the surface, this appears relatively balanced. But this balance shifts dramatically when one moves up the licensing structure. Among White licence holders, there are 16 096 males and only 1 615 females. Indian males number 713 compared to 1 173 females, an interesting anomaly that deserves separate sociological inquiry. It seems from the statistics that most of these licences come from air traffic services training amongst Indian females which stands at 933 licensed personnel). Coloured licence holders reflect 739 males and 487 females. Numbers alone, however, do not tell the full story. The real gatekeeping occurs at the level of licence type.
The Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL), the true gateway into professional aviation, exposes the fault lines. For fixed wing aircraft, African CPL holders stand at 134 males and 66 females. Whites dominate this space with 1 372 males and only 124 females. Amongst Indians there are 68 males and 11 females, whilst amongst the Coloured demographic there are 28 males and 7 females.
Helicopter CPLs show even starker patterns. Among Whites, there are 474 male CPL holders compared to just 47 females. African helicopter CPLs are numerically small but slightly more balanced at 16 males and 12 females, though the overall access to this segment remains limited. For Indians there are 4 males and 2 females, whilst for Coloureds there are 7 males and 1 female who hold the helicopter CPL.
The Air Transport Pilot Licence (ATPL), the apex of pilot certification and a proxy for command, seniority and income, is where historical privilege becomes most visible. In fixed wing ATPLs, White males number 1 978 compared to 175 White females. African males stand at 82 versus 13 females. Coloureds account for 33 males and 4 females, whilst Indians account for 47 males and 7 females. Helicopter ATPLs are even more exclusive, with 193 White males and only 14 White females, while African representation is reduced to single digits – 8 males and 1 female. Coloureds account for 2 males and zero females, whilst Indians are represented by 3 males and 1 female only.
These figures cannot be divorced from South Africa’s history. The job colour bar system of the apartheid economy did not only determine who could work where. It also shaped institutional cultures, access to capital, training pipelines and informal networks. Aviation was ringfenced as a White male domain, militarised, expensive and socially exclusive. While formal racial barriers have fallen, the cultural and economic residues remain firmly intact. Flight training costs, mentorship access, airline recruitment practices and command upgrade pathways still favour those who look like yesterday’s pilots.
SACAA’s own transformative agenda, articulated through its mandates on safety, security and transformation, must grapple with this reality more directly. Transformation cannot be reduced to reporting statistics. It must interrogate why progression narrows so sharply for women as licences become more advanced. It must ask why the cockpit door remains heavier for African women in particular. In many ways the SACAA has done this, from the bursary programme that is has run year on year, to the industry engagements it has convened such as the ICAO NGAP Conference in 2025 and the Gender Summit it often convenes from time to time. As a regulator, it has contributed to transformation, and there is a need for all role players to align and lend a hand to the transformation agenda.
From an ICAO NGAP perspective, South Africa risks missing an opportunity to build a truly future ready aviation sector. Diversity in aviation is not cosmetic. It influences decision making, safety culture and organisational ethics. A homogenous cockpit is a strategic risk in a rapidly changing global industry.
The South African Constitution demands substantive equality, not symbolic gains. A one percent increase should not be celebrated without critique. It should instead prompt urgency. If aviation is to serve as an economic catalyst, as both government and industry often claim, then it must reflect the society it serves. There is therefore an urgent need for academia, government, policy makers, regulators, airlines, the aviation business community, traditional authorities etc to come together and deliberate on concrete and meaningful pathways for transforming the South African aviation sector if we are to uplift this economy and make it sustainable.
It is trite that while the sky may be open, access to it remains uneven. Until we confront the structural legacies shaping who gets to command an aircraft, South African aviation will continue to fly with one wing clipped.
Prof Angelo Dube (Commercial Pilot) is a Professor of International Law, Acting Director of the School of Law at UNISA, and Chief Executive Officer at Flying Jurist, and founder of the Aviation Indaba. At UNISA he heads the Aviation Law Working Group, a consortium of pilots, aviators, researchers and lawyers who research in various aspects of aviation law. He writes here in his personal capacity.
