Saudi Arabian Airlines has reported an overwhelming response to a recruitment drive for its information technology department, with more than 1000 women applying for the 20 available positions in a single day.
The national carrier had set a deadline of 24th August 2011 for the jobs, which were restricted to female nationals with identity cards in order to tackle a growing unemployment rate amongst Saudi Arabian women.
Experience in computer-related sciences, accounting, finance, statistics and administrative information systems were required and a minimum age limit of 25 years was also set for candidates with bachelor degrees, while postgraduates needed to be older than 30 years.
Encouraged by the application numbers, Saudi Arabian Airlines is now planning to recruit women for vacancies in other departments, such as medical, sales and customer relations.
According to the airline’s vice president of public relations, Abdullah Al-Ajhar, the successful candidates will be entitled to medical insurance and annual housing allowance of three months’ worth of pay.