Women reach new heights in aviation industry in South Florida

Compared to other STEM fields, aviation has one of the lowest percentages of women filling their positions, but Banyan Air Service at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport is trying to reverse that trend.

Out of their 205 employees, 40 are women.

Maryamu “Mimi” Samdi is an aviation maintenance technician at Banyan Air Service who fixes planes for a living and she also hopes to fix the gender gap in aviation.

“I would love to see more women in aviation. I think that it’s such an amazing industry and field," Samdi said. "There are so many opportunities and types of jobs whether you’re a pilot, a mechanic, or you’re working customer service. There’s just so many things that you can do."

Samdi has seen the start of a positive trend at Banyan Air Service as they staff women in all their departments, ranging from supervisors and managers in aircraft maintenance, to avionics, parts sales, admins and accounting, line service technicians, and more.

“The industry is definitely primarily male-dominated and so it’s amazing for me to see as a technician that we have other female technicians working here at Banyan," Samdi said. "It’s a really great experience as I graduated in a class of about 20 to 30 and there was two of us girls that graduated with our A&P. So it’s incredible to see Banyan having up to 4 to 5 women working in the field."

For Linda Li, a marketing specialist, "at Banyan we really strive to create a sense of community for women and support system in fields like mechanics, engineers, technicians and we really want to support women in mentorships and have them be able to grow in their career."

Samdi was born and raised in Nigeria and figured out that she wanted to pursue a career in aviation. She attended Letourneau University in Texas where she got her bachelor's in aviation maintenance with a computer science concentration.

Through a mutual friend, she happened to meet Don Campion, the CEO of Banyan Air Service. She made such an impression with her passion for aviation, that Campion offered her an internship. After graduating with her A&P license, she landed a full-time job at Banyan.

“I’ve gotten to work on everything from small King Airs to big Globals and Challengers and Learjets and everything in between, so it’s really just a vast array of airplanes," Samdi said. "You fix the problem and you get to see the reward at the end and you’re like wow, this component works again or I replaced this thing and the system works again. Then you get to see the airplane take off and leave and it’s like wow. It’s amazing that you get be a part of that process."

Samdi is also proud to make her mark at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE), which is one of the top five busiest general aviation airports in the nation for itinerant traffic, with an overall economic impact of $3.9 billion.

While Samdi is living her dream, she isn’t done yet as she hopes to keep rising through the ranks in the future.

“I love working on airplanes. I love seeing how they work," Samdi said. "In the long run, I hope to also maybe manage airplanes sometimes. Maybe manage the maintenance on the side."

Campion and Samdi also share a very special connection through Banyan’s non-profit organization Egbe Hospital Revitalization Project, which is located in Nigeria. With the help of many Nigerians and missionaries working together, the hospital grew from a small maternity clinic to include a maternity ward, operating theatre, outpatient department and in-patient wards.