Women in Private Aviation by the Numbers

How many women hold FAA pilot certificates?

Women hold approximately 9.6% of all active FAA pilot certificates as of the agency's 2023 civil airmen statistics, or roughly 76,000 of about 790,000 certificated pilots. That headline figure masks sharp variation by certificate level: women hold about 7.9% of commercial certificates and 4.9% of Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) certificates — the credential most relevant to Part 135 charter and Part 91 corporate flying.

Student pilot certificates tell a different story. Women hold roughly 14–15% of student certificates issued in recent years, which is the leading indicator the industry watches. The pipeline is widening; the question is how many of those students convert to commercial and ATP tickets, and how many of those convert into business aviation seats rather than airline ones.

What share of business aviation pilots are women?

Business aviation pilot ranks are estimated at 5–7% women, below the 4.9% ATP figure when adjusted for the smaller corporate and charter pilot population. NBAA has not published a definitive operator-by-operator count, but membership surveys and operator disclosures during recruiting cycles put the share in single digits at nearly every major fractional, charter, and managed-fleet operator.

NetJets, the largest fractional operator with roughly 3,000 pilots, has publicly cited a women-pilot share in the high single digits and has run targeted recruiting through Women in Aviation International (WAI) conferences. Flexjet, FlightSafety-trained and operating around 2,000 pilots, reports similar figures. Wheels Up, Jet Aviation, Solairus, and Executive Jet Management all sit in comparable territory. No major US business-aviation operator has publicly disclosed a women-pilot share above 10%.

Where are the numbers higher — and where lower?

Cabin and ground roles skew significantly more female than the cockpit. Corporate flight attendants are estimated at 75–85% women, scheduling and dispatch roles at 40–60%, and client services and owner relations at fractionals frequently above 60%. Maintenance technicians (A&P mechanics) remain heavily male: FAA data puts women at roughly 2.6% of certificated mechanics, a figure that has barely moved in a decade.

In leadership, the numbers are improving but uneven. Kriya Shortt runs Textron Aviation's service network as a senior executive; Wheels Up's senior ranks include women in operations, legal, and commercial roles; Jet Linx has women in regional base-president roles. Among NBAA member-company chief pilots and directors of aviation, women are estimated at under 5% — a figure NBAA itself has flagged as a focus area through its Business Aviation Top 40 Under 40 and leadership-development programming.

How many women own or charter private aircraft?

Roughly 14–18% of private-aviation principal accounts are held by women, based on operator-reported account-holder data from fractional programs and jet card issuers over the past five years. The figure rises meaningfully when joint accounts and family offices with female principals are included — closer to 25–30% on a beneficial-ownership basis.

Female-principal share is highest in entertainment, fashion, and consumer-brand sectors and lowest in industrial and energy verticals. VistaJet has reported that women represent a growing share of its Program members and has marketed specifically to female ultra-high-net-worth clients through its Private World programming. NetJets and Flexjet do not break out share holders by gender publicly, but both have run client events targeting women owners.

On the demand side, charter brokers report women initiate or sign off on roughly 30–40% of leisure charter bookings and a lower share — 15–25% — of business charter bookings, where corporate flight departments and executive assistants intermediate.

What about brokers, salespeople, and operators?

Aircraft brokerage and charter sales have moved faster than the cockpit. Women now make up an estimated 20–30% of charter sales desks at the major operators and roughly 15–20% of aircraft sales and acquisitions brokers at firms like Jetcraft, Guardian Jet, Mente Group, and Duncan Aviation's sales arm. The National Aircraft Resale Association (NARA, now IADA) counts a growing number of women among its accredited dealers, though the senior-broker ranks remain predominantly male.

Charter operator ownership is harder to measure. Argus and Wyvern do not publish operator-ownership demographics, but among the roughly 2,000 Part 135 certificate holders in the US, women-owned or women-led operators are a small minority — estimated at under 10%. Notable examples include operators led by founders with multi-decade industry tenure who built from broker or scheduling backgrounds into certificate ownership.

Which organizations track and move these numbers?

Women in Aviation International (WAI) is the primary tracker and convener, with roughly 15,000 members and an annual conference that awards more than $500,000 in scholarships, including type ratings donated by NetJets, Flexjet, FlightSafety International, and CAE. The Ninety-Nines, founded in 1929 with Amelia Earhart as its first president, administers the Amelia Earhart Memorial Scholarship for advanced ratings and type ratings.

ISA+21 (International Society of Women Airline Pilots) focuses on the airline side but maintains crossover with corporate pilots moving between sectors. Sisters of the Skies focuses on Black women pilots, a group estimated at well under 1% of US professional pilots — a gap traceable to Bessie Coleman's era and only partially closed. Whirly-Girls International covers women rotorcraft pilots, relevant to the helicopter charter and EMS segments. Women of Aviation Worldwide Week, held each March around the anniversary of the first female pilot license, focuses on introductory flights for girls and women.

NBAA's own diversity programming, the Corporate Aviation Management Committee's pipeline work, and operator-funded type-rating scholarships are the mechanisms moving the business-aviation-specific numbers. The pipeline metrics — student certificates, conference scholarship awards, type-rating placements — are improving year over year. The seat-share metrics in cockpits and C-suites lag the pipeline by roughly a decade, which is the realistic horizon on which the current numbers will materially change.