This Etihad Pilot Is Capturing the Spirit of Emirati Women’s Day by Embracing Flight Analytics

Few things demonstrate expertise and leadership quite like piloting a 553,000-pound jet bearing 250-odd passengers from the Middle East to one of the roughly 80 destinations Etihad Airways — the national airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — reaches daily. The first officer of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner commands not just a powerful aircraft but the formidable array of onboard technology that makes it an industry leader in fuel efficiency, some of which is just beginning to transform flying. 

First Officer Aya Saleh Alaudhli is one of the first Etihad cadet pilots to successfully complete “Base Training” on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner in its Multi-Crew Pilot License (MPL) program. Her timing was impeccable. On August 28, the UAE is celebrating Emirati Women’s Day, an annual commemoration that Her Highness Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak introduced in 2015 to promote gender equality regionally and to empower and support women in the Emirates. As the UAE celebrates the women from various fields who are leading the nation into the future, its recent themes — like “We Collaborate for Tomorrow” and “Inspiring Reality … Sustainable Future” —seem especially apt for First Officer Alaudhli, who represents an exciting new chapter in aviation, one in which GE Aerospace has been instrumental. 

A Passion for Flying

“I’d wanted to become a pilot since very early in my school years, but in my mind it didn’t seem possible,” says Alaudhli, who would have been roughly grade-school age when the first UAE women enrolled as cadets in Etihad’s training program. But she had supportive parents and, she says, “ever since I was a young kid traveling with my family, I was always fascinated with the airplane. I always wanted to know everything about it.” 

But when Alaudhli saw some applications at a high school career fair, she took a chance. “I was like, ‘Why not pursue it and see how it goes?’” she says. She filled out every application, sat for every exam, and took each successive step toward a dream that she soon realized “was what I was really passionate about,” she adds. “I only wanted to do this.”

From here, she says her journey was uneventful. “Not that it wasn’t challenging,” she clarifies. “I just really enjoyed every part of it. I believe that when you’re doing something from your heart, it becomes relatively easy. Even when you’re learning something hard.”

Tapping the Data

For today’s pilots, the step to bigger, more powerful aircraft means mastering increasingly sophisticated technology. “The Dreamliner is one of the newest leading aircraft, and it has some of the most amazing technology and software,” says Alaudhli. “It’s essential to understand the system inside out, because to some extent you’re giving your trust to this software. You need the right knowledge, the right procedures, the right understanding, and enough experience with the software that you’re able to trust it. It’s really only as good as what you put into it, and a simple error can lead to a huge mistake.”

By the same token, simple minor improvements can reap tremendous benefits. Along with books, documents, and personal items, Alaudhli’s flight bag carries an Apple iPad, which will be the key point of contact to a constellation of new GE Aerospace software applications whose use of big data has been optimizing pilot performance to a striking extent since the first product was rolled out in 2009.

“One of the key solutions in our portfolio is flight analytics,” says Amir Emam, senior sales director of GE Aerospace Software as a Service for the Middle East, Türkiye, and Africa. “This software enhances safety and sustainability, assists in predictive maintenance, and significantly boosts operator performance.”

The power is in the size, range, and quality of the data this software provides so clearly and in such a timely fashion. “We take data from multiple sources — sources on the aircraft, on the ground, and other places,” Emam explains. “We blend the streams together, analyze the data, and provide insights to the operator — and, via our Flight Pulse app, to the pilot directly.” 

Pilots of Tomorrow

Giving direct access to pilots is critical. In providing granular, real-time data on fuel optimization performance, safety performance, and other variables that pilots affect in their constant micro-adjustments over time, Flight Pulse gives this famously competitive class of professionals the ability to transform their flying game. “We see almost instantaneous uptick in the performance of a pilot, because it’s very intuitive,” says Emam. “It’s a very simple app, especially with younger pilots who are used to apps, and their improvements are really remarkable.” 

Right now, Etihad is beta-testing a suite of this software, which Alaudhli says she’s eager to explore. “It’s a tremendous learning opportunity, especially for pilots, because it so directly improves fuel efficiency and safety,” she says. “So I believe it would add such a value for all pilots when it will be available for everyone.”

First Officer Alaudhli believes these kinds of transformative safety- and efficiency-improving technologies will also improve careers for the pilots of tomorrow. And she hopes that more young people like her will enter those ranks. “I would really love to see more women in aviation, because, from my personal experience, they’re great,” she says. “Very professional, very passionate about their jobs, and excellent at what they do.”

Alaudhli, for her part, has identified the next passion she hopes to pursue: “scuba diving,” she says. “In some ways, the complete opposite. But in a lot of ways, kind of related.”