Across China: sky's the limit: American female pilot chases dreams in China

In an industry dominated by male pilots, Sara Jobartlett is someone unique: she is the first foreign pilot of China Express Airlines Co., Ltd. and the first female pilot in the company.

Jobartlett, 45, works in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. She came to China in 2012 and has been living in Chongqing for six years.

For a long time, pilots were mainly men, but these days female pilots are not uncommon in China. According to a report by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the number of female pilots in the country's civil aviation industry reached 834 in 2019.

Born in North Carolina in the United States, Sara piloted a small plane on her farm for the first time to experience flying when she was 18 years old. She said she fell in love with flying at the time but never thought of it as a career.

Like many young people, she went to college, graduated, and started job-hunting. Before becoming a pilot, Sara worked as a florist, a bank clerk, and a trading company employee.

But it seemed that only flying was her true passion.

"Only flying can make me feel the purest love and happiness, but at that time, I was 27 years old," she said. Despite difficulties, Sara quit her job and went back to school to learn how to fly.

After two years of hard study, Sara finally succeeded in becoming a pilot and joined American Airlines to fly passenger planes.

Later, as the employment environment for pilots worsened in the United States, she moved to China in order to continue flying. As she worked longer in China, Sara fell in love with the country and decided to settle down in Chongqing.

Sara regards Chongqing as her second hometown.

She recalled that when she first received her salary in the city a few years ago, the finance department staff didn't know how to remit money to her and had to give her a pile of cash.

"I have adapted to living in Chongqing, where things are changing so fast," she said.

Now, Sara is quite used to mobile payments in China.

"I can't remember the last time I used cash in China. It's all WeChat Pay or Alipay," she said.

Off work, Sara is a mother of two. She has taken her daughter and son to live with her in Chongqing.

She admits that it's not easy to strike a balance between work and family and that she wants to be a good captain and a good mother.

"The biggest difficulty for me is trying to raise my family. Although the job of flying is hard, I can still see my children every day, which allows me to balance work and life," Sara added.

Her children also enjoy their life in Chongqing and have begun to learn Chinese. Sara said that work and life in China will always be very valuable experiences in life in the future.