A former Gatwick and Stansted flight controller has achieved her long-held ambition of becoming a commercial pilot.

Sabine Hargreaves now flies 737s for Jet2 from Leeds-Bradford Airport to some of Europe’s most popular tourist destinations.

But speaking to the Yorkshire Evening Post, she revealed that when she first tried to become a pilot at the age of 18, Lufthansa dashed her hopes by informing her that they were not considering female applicants.

Brushing aside that disappointment, Ms Hargreaves moved to England from Germany and was eventually hired as a flight controller at Stansted and Gatwick.

She told the newspaper: “But I kept flying and saving money and taking exams towards my commercial licence. I had to pass 14 exams in order to become a [commercial] pilot.”

Ms Hargreaves eventually quit to become a full-time flight instructor and eventually obtained her commercial licence at the age of 41.

She told the Yorkshire Evening Post: “One thing people always ask me when they find out I’m a pilot is what emergencies I’ve been in. Touch wood, there haven’t been any.

“We have to keep right up to date with all the latest safety training, it’s a big part of what we do. One thing that is a little unnerving is when you are above the clouds and you can see another plane going the same way as you, it’s just disconcerting because it just remains the same distance away.”

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Heathrow and Gatwick are just two of the UK airports that will start more than 120 new routes this summer, aviation analysis company anna.aero has revealed.

London’s two main airports will collectively offer flights to 27 new routes, while Manchester welcomes 16 new routes, as demand for overseas flights is expected to increase during the summer as more and more Britons could opt to go abroad while on holiday.

Jet2 is launching 24 new services, while British Airways will begin new scheduled flights to Buenos Aires, San Diego and Marrakech. Britons wanting to go on holiday to America might be interested to discover that Delta will offer flights from Heathrow to Boston and Miami. 

Swiss-based carrier SkyWorks Airlines will offer its first UK-based flights when it begins its daily service from London City Airport to Bern.

Of the new UK routes, 25 will go to Spain and 11 are headed for destinations in France. 

Aviation analysts have calculated that airlines will operate more than 800 new flights across the world this summer, while the number of seats on flights departing from European airports is 19.36 million, which represents a 2.6% rise on the same period last year.

The region with the biggest increase in seat numbers from last summer and this summer is Asia, where the number of seats on offer has gone up 10.5%.

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Jet2 has stationed a Boeing 737-300 at Gatwick after failed charter carrier Hamburg International Airlines filed for insolvency in October.Several tour operators will be relieved that Jet2 has stepped in at the last minute as Hamburg’s demise left a number of operators facing a shortfall that needed to be filled at short notice. The no-frills carrier will fly several times a week with a different operator each time.

The move will be a departure for Leeds-based Jet2, as its scheduled operations are normally flown from airports in the North, Scotland and the Midlands.

Passenger sales director Phil Ward stressed that Jet2 was not setting up a base for scheduled flights at Gatwick, but was providing seasonal charters to meet demand from operators.

“As a financially stable and operationally reliable airline we are mindful that our customers need surety in the supply of flight capacity to avoid disruption or disappointment to their passengers,” he said.

“Jet2.com operates a variety of charter flights each year and will work hard in the next few weeks to ensure the Gatwick programme gets off to a flying start.”

Hamburg International Airlines was first launched in 1998, with the first planes taking off in 1999. By March 2007 it had a pool of 215 staff and was wholly owned by its management and local venture capitalists.

After it went bankrupt on 19 October, 2010, all of its aircraft were returned to their respective lessors, with the immediate cessation of all flights.

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easyJet have welcomed the prospect of lower passenger duty which may be on the cards since the formation of the new coalition government in Britain.

The decisions have also been made to introduce a new tax on planes which would most likely affect older, less efficient airline brands that are running planes that are half-full of passengers. easyJet run younger planes with load factors well over 85%, welcome the revised approach.

easyJet

The chief executive of easyJet, Andy Harrison said,  ”We look forward to working with the new secretary of state for transport. The two Government parties have made a firm coalition agreement to reform the daft Air Passenger Duty, which taxes full planes but not empty ones. It’s now time to act and make it a fairer and greener tax without increasing the tax burden on the flying public.”

In other recent news reported the 3rd runway at Heathrow will be scrapped by the new government and plans to introduce new capacity at London Gatwick and London Stansted will also be put on hold.

easyJet is also expecting to transport more than 60% passengers this year than British Airways.