Fatima Jakoet is currently an airline pilot at South African Airways (SAA). She started her career at SAA on the Boeing 747-400 in 2005 and a year later began working on the Airbus 340 series international routes. She currently operates the Airbus 319/320 and is based in Cape Town.  Fatima obtained her frozen Airline Transport Pilot license (ATPL) at the BAE Flight Training College in Adelaide, Australia and joined Airlink in November 2002 where she operated the Jetstream 41.

Fatima graduated with her MBA from the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB) in 2009 and achieved a distinction for her thesis entitled: A safety culture survey amongst Aircraft Maintenance Engineers. She has since been actively involved in activities of Stellenbosch University (SU) and was appointed as brand ambassador for SU in 2013. She also holds a degree in Chemistry and was part of both the National Health and the South African Police Services Forensic teams where she filled the roles of forensic toxicologist and narcotics expert respectively.

In 2010, Fatima established a foundation to create aviation awareness and develop skills amongst learners from grade 1-12. To date the Sakhikamva (Xhosa: building a future) Foundation has interacted with more than 70 000 learners and has run more than 12 programs and projects on a rotational basis. The Sakhikamva Foundation formed strategic partnerships with Universities to ensure that meaningful sustainable development platform is built for the youth in the aerospace industry.

She developed and launched the world’s first Science Technology Robotics Engineering Aerospace and Mathematics (STREAM) laboratory in June 2015. The STREAM laboratory is an interactive space for the development of essential skills for youth in the aerospace sector.