Ari Fuji

Ari Fuji (藤 明里, Fuji Ari, born 1968) is the first female pilot in command and flight instructor at a commercial passenger airline in Japan. She earned her original aviation license in the United States of America and trained to be a certified pilot for commercial passenger airline under Japanese aviation regulations.

In this Japanese name, the surname is Fuji.
Ari Fuji
(藤 明里)
Born1968 (age 54–55)
NationalityJapan
EducationRikkyo University
Known forFirst woman pilot-in-command and flight instructor for a domestic passenger airline in Japan
Aviation career
First flightfirst flight as a pilot in command, July 12, 2010[1]
Famous flightsPIC operation on July 12, 2010, between Osaka Airport and Sendai Airport
Flight licenseco-pilot, JAL Express, April 2000
Pilot in command, Japan Air Lines, July 2, 2010
aviator, the United States of America

Biography

Ari Fuji grew up near Yokota Air Base, United States Air Force in Japan and aspired to become a pilot for a commercial airline. However, when she applied to the national Civil Aviation College, an Independent Administrative Institution regulated by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, they rejected her request to take the entry examination, reasoning that she was too short to qualify.[2]

After graduating from Toho Gakuen Girls' High School and Rikkyo University School of Law in Tokyo, Japan,[3] she chose to work at a company in Japan, saved enough to study at a pilot training school in the United States of America obtaining her aviator's license. After returning home, she applied for the Japanese aviation certificate while she worked at a company, to be licensed as an aviator under Japanese aviation regulations.[4]

First officer to a PIC

The former JAL Express (JEX) accepted Fuji as a trainee in 1999. She was licensed as a first officer in 2000, and in July 2010 she became the first woman pilot in command for a Japanese passenger airline. In those 11 years, she logged the over 5,500 flight hours required by JAL to qualify as a PIC.

JAL reformed its recruit system for pilots in the late 1990s, allowing licensed pilots to apply to their recruit program (just as new graduates could). Fuji applied and was admitted as a trainee pilot.[notes 1]

Since around 2005, Fuji-san concentrated on training toward the pilot-in-command (PIC) certification test. In 5 years she succeeded at a PIC test on July 2, 2010, at the age of 42 under stormy weather[6][7] and received her certificate as the first woman pilot-in-command at a passenger airline in Japan at JAX headquarters in Osaka on July 9, 2010.[1][8][9]

A training pilot

With additional flight hours over 600 and maintained outstanding performance at regular PIC sessions, as well as instructor pilot qualification,[10] and in August 2015, certified as a training pilot aged 47, another first record for a woman in aviation industry[11] to open doors for women.

She has been the only woman PIC in Japan as of 2015 and commanded every Doll Festival flight each March 3, when JAL appointed an all-woman flight operation team including ground staff, mechanics and crews. For Haneda - Komatsu line, JAL flew the first Doll Festival flight on 3 March 2016.[12]

References
  1. "日航グループ：国内初の女性機長 12日初フライト" [The first woman pilot in command takes off on July 12, 2010 on JAL commercial passenger airline]. 毎日新聞 (in Japanese). 2010-07-09. Archived from the original on 2010-07-12. Retrieved 2016-12-24.
  2. Ren Inaizumi (2014-01-22). "Height regulation or prejudice against woman aviator can't stop her: Ari Fuji becomes the first woman pilot in Japan at JAL Express" (in Japanese). Masahiro Usami (photographer). PRESIDENT Online. Retrieved 2016-12-25.
  3. Toho Alumini Association
  4. Atsushi Shimamura (Director of Safety Division, Civil Aviation Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism) (2015). "Pilot's career path _ Procedures in Japan to train aviators upgrading to first officer and pilot in command" (PDF). Transport policy research. Civil Aviation Bureau, MLIT. p. 57. Retrieved 2016-12-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. "the pilot training system at JAL" (in Japanese). Japan Airlines. Archived from the original on 2016-05-03. Retrieved 2016-12-27.
  6. "Ari Fuji Becomes Japan's First Female pilot-in-command for a domestic airline" (in Japanese). AvStop Online Magazine. Retrieved 2016-12-26.
  7. "People" column, Asahi Newspaper, July 9, 2010
  8. "Ms. Fuji, 42, the first woman PIC, JAL, says: "Tens of thousands of times I was about to give up"". Sankei Shinbun (in Japanese). 2010-07-09. Archived from the original on 2010-08-19. Retrieved 2011-02-14.
  9. "Strive steadily and the "wind against you" will drop in and out of the work space: interview with Fuji Ari, the Japan's first woman pilot-in-command at JAL Express" (in Japanese). PRESIDENT Online. Retrieved 2016-12-25.
  10. "Pilot training procedure for airline companies" (PDF). Current situation and issues related to airline aviators and the occupational regulation in Japan (memorandum at the 6th meeting, the joint subcommittee on evaluation (in Japanese). Aviation Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. 2014. p. 9. Retrieved 2016-12-26.
  11. Hiroyuki Ono (2015-08-26). "Ms. Ari Fuji, domestic airline has a first woman training pilot in the industry". Mainichi shinbun (in Japanese). Yohei Koide (photographer). Archived from the original on 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2016-12-24.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  12. "JAL Doll Festival flight, all women staff for PICs, flight attendants, and mechanics". Mainichi shinbun (in Japanese). 2016-03-03.

Notes
  1. JAL has not accepted licensed aviators any more as its recruiting candidates as of 2016.[5]
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