BECOMING an air hostess is the dream of many young girls, but Xu Yanxiu quit after working in the cabin for 14 years.

    The reason was that Xu, then 31, wanted to work in the pilot’s cockpit. Four years later, Xu realized her dream. The former air hostess graduated from a pilot school and joined the Shenzhen branch of China Southern Airlines earlier this year.

    Xu beat numerous competitors to get the job as an air hostess in 1993. She worked her way up to the position of chief stewardess in 1999, and in 2002, she was promoted to a manager.

    Yet she never gave up her ultimate dream of flying.

    In 2007, at the age of 31, Xu quit her stable job to learn flying at her own cost. “I would regret for my whole life if I did not become a pilot,” she recalled.

    She paid 600,000 yuan (US$91,463) in tuition for her course, which she did not complete until four years later. The pilot school where she studied closed during the financial crisis in December 2008, when Xu almost got her pilot license. Luckily for her, she resumed her study one year later at the Civil Aviation Flight University of China with the help of the Civil Administration of China.

    Xu was described as a very diligent person by her peer pilots, most of whom more than 10 years younger than her. “I could make mistakes as an air hostess. But as a pilot, I cannot make any mistake,” she said. “So I need to put in more efforts.”

    There are about 20 female pilots in China, and 13 of them work for China Southern Airlines. (Helen Deng)