Aya Gertrude Konan has made HERstory by becoming the first female commercial pilot in her home country of Côte D’Ivoire, also known as the Ivory Coast.

Konan is a First Officer at Air Côte D’Ivoire, the country’s national airline, who pilots an Airbus A320. Her LinkedIn notes that she worked for the carrier as a flight attendant for nearly three years between March 2023 and October 2015.

Women Power Africa reported that Konan applied to be a recruit in a competition-based pilot and aircraft mechanics training program Air Côte D’Ivoire launched in 2014. Reportedly, Konan was the only woman out of 15 selected to train. Moreover, she was allegedly one of around 1,500 young Ivorian applicants hoping to develop aviation skills in the program.

After over two years of training, Konan became Côte D’Ivoire’s first female commercial pilot. She’s been jet-setting the skies as a First Officer since 2019. The role includes co-piloting commercial flights, helping navigate, and accompanying a flight’s captain as the plane’s second in command.

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Who Is Aya Gertrude Konan?

Rising Africa claims Konan did her theoretical training at Institut National Polytechnique Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Côte D’Ivoire’s capital, Yamoussoukro. The source added that the history-maker did her practical pilot training in France.

In 2023, Konan proudly told Afrique Magazine that becoming a pilot was her childhood dream. While speaking with the outlet, the 30-something said there’s nothing like being in the skies and piloting passengers with care and safety.

“When I fly, there is only the sky and me. It’s a wonder, a freedom. It’s inexplicable. You take off this wide-body aircraft with more than a hundred passengers onboard … You have the weight of this responsibility, but you say to yourself, ‘I am alongside the clouds. I am in the skies.’ This feeling of The accomplishment is indescribable,” she said in a quote translated into English from French.

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