DAYTONA BEACH, Florida – Boeing plans to establish a $3 million permanent endowment for scholarships at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University to assist students interested in pursuing a pilot’s license and certificates in aviation maintenance.
The Boeing scholarships will seek to increase the number of underrepresented populations in the pilot workforce, particularly women and persons of color, as well as veterans, according to university officials.
Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace company and leading aircraft manufacturer, will collaborate with Embry-Riddle to make scholarships available as early as this fall.
According to Boeing’s 2018 Pilot & Technician Outlook, the industry will need 790,000 new civil aviation pilots and 754,000 new maintenance technicians to fly and maintain the world fleet over the next 20 years.
Of the 609,306 pilots certificated by the FAA in 2017, only about 7%, or 42,694, are women, according to Women in Aviation International. Statistics on other underrepresented groups in aviation are limited, but a 2014 report suggested that 2.7% of U.S. airline transport pilots were people of color, 2.5% were of Asian heritage, and 5% were Hispanic or Latino.