Air India set to mark International Women’s Day with All Women flights

across India and to 12 foreign stations 

Air India is set to fly 12 all-women crew flights on its medium and long-haul international routes and over 40 return domestic and short-haul flights all over India to celebrate International Women’s Day on 08^th March, this year. On this occasion, the women cockpit and cabin crew of Air India will be operating both wide and narrow body aircraft in its fleet to all corners of the world and across the nation to salute woman power in sync with our socio-cultural ethos of our country. Seldom has a single airline scheduled  so many flights –  operated by its women employees – setting a benchmark to reiterate the equal role and opportunity women rightly deserve in any organisation.

Speaking on the occasion, Air India CMD Mr Ashwani Lohani said, “Every individual and the society must respect women. It is a moment of absolute pride and honour for Air Indians that our women employees are leaving their mark in the aviation sector on a global scale. I would like to congratulate our women crew for operating so many flights on various international and domestic routes fuelled by their indomitable nari shakti.”

 Air India will be deploying its B787 Dreamliners and B777s to operate to 12 international medium and long-haul flights operated by women pilots and attended by women cabin crew to celebrate the Women’s Day. The sectors are as follows:

Women pilots and cabin crew will be operating Airbus family aircraft as well as dreamliners to over 40 domestic destinations and back to commemorate the occasion.  For most of these flights, the technical services will be provided by woman aircraft engineers, technicians and flight dispatchers; while woman duty managers, counter staff, helpers and doctors will do the honours for most of these flights.

Air India’s foray into all-woman crew flights dates back to November 1985 when an all-woman cockpit crew operated a Fokker Friendship flight from Kolkata to Silchar. In fact, Air India’s rich legacy of woman pilots and commanders had started way back in 1956 when Captain Durba Banerjee was inducted as the first woman commercial pilot of Air India (erstwhile Indian Airlines).

Over the years, Air India has operated innumerable all-woman crew domestic and international flights. Air India had earlier created history by operating the around-the-world flight on Delhi-SFO-Delhi sector. The non-stop flight from Delhi to San Francisco travelled via the Pacific Ocean and returned via the Atlantic Ocean completing a round trip of the world.

The national carrier has been providing equal opportunities to its women employees in every area of its functioning from senior management posts to pilots, flight dispatchers, aircraft engineers, technicians, safety and quality auditors, ground instructors. Indeed, the women employees of Air India have proved over the years that the hands that rock the cradle can propel an airline to soar high as well.

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Some of the women Pilots of Air India to leave a mark in the History of Indian Civil Aviation:

• In 1985 Captain Saudamini Deshmukh commanded the first all women crew flight on an Air India (erstwhile Indian Airlines) Fokker friendship F-27 on the Calcutta-Silchar route. She also commanded the first Boeing all-women crew flight on September 1989 on the Mumbai-Goa sector.
• In 1990 Captain Nivedita Bhasin of Air India (erstwhile Indian Airlines) at 26 became the youngest pilot in civil aviation history to command a jet aircraft.
• Captain Anny Divya, who joined Air India in 2006, is the youngest woman commander of the Boeing 777 aircraft.
• In 2016, Capt. Kshamta Bajpai and Capt. Shubhangi Singh along with First Officers Capt. Ramya Kirti Gupta and Capt. Amrit Namdhari became the first women pilots to fly the world’s longest all women operated flight from Delhi- San Francisco
• In 2017, Capt. Kshamta Bajpai and Capt. Sunita Narula along with First Officers Capt. Indira Singh and Capt. Gunjan Aggarwal became the first women pilots to fly all women supported and operated flight around the world on Delhi-San Francisco

Air India

March 07, 2019

About Air India:

Air India pioneered India’s aviation sector and its history is synonymous with the history of civil aviation in India. Air India embodies the spirit of India by extending warm hospitality and the urge to satisfy its guests, an inherent characteristic of the country’s culture.

Since the first flight on October 15, 1932, Air India has grown to become a mega international airline with a network of 46 international destinations across the USA, Europe, Far-East, South-East Asia, Australia and the Gulf. The airline also has an extensive domestic network of 80 destinations,including all state capitals and far-flung areas of India’s North-East, Ladakh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The airline also provides ground handling and engineering & maintenance services, as well as low-cost travel options. Air India, together with its subsidiaries, today flies one of the youngest, state-of-the-art, fleet of aircraft comprising a mix of the wide-body Boeing B787 Dreamliners, B777s, B747s and the narrow body Airbus A321s, A320s, A319s, B737s and ATRs. Air India has been a member of Star Alliance, the largest global airline alliance, since July 2014. For additional information visit airindia.in and/or follow us on Facebook/airindia and on Twitter – @airindiain.

About Star Alliance:

About Star Alliance: The Star Alliance network was established in 1997 as the first truly global airline alliance to offer worldwide reach, recognition and seamless service to the international traveller. Its acceptance by the market has been recognized by numerous awards, including the Air Transport World Market Leadership Award and Best Airline Alliance by both Business Traveller Magazine and Skytrax. The member airlines are: Adria Airways, Aegean Airlines, Air Canada, Air China, Air India, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, Avianca, Avianca Brasil, Brussels Airlines, Copa Airlines, Croatia Airlines, EGYPTAIR, Ethiopian Airlines, EVA Air, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, SWISS, TAP Air Portugal, THAI, Turkish Airlines and United. Overall, the Star Alliance network currently offers more than 18,800 daily flights to over 1,300 airports in 193 countries. Further connecting flights are offered by Star Alliance Connecting Partner, Juneyao Airlines.