Ethiopian Airlines inspires African Women with its 1st Ever All-Female Operated Flight

Tomorrow, on November 19 2015, Ethiopian Airlines will make history with its first ever female-only operated flight on the Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Bangkok, Thailand route.

All female crew and ground staff will be women – from the pilots to cabin crew, from ticketing desks to traffic control.

Here are photos of the pilots that’ll operate the flight.

Meet our #female pilots that command #Ethiopian first All Women Functioned Flight. #historyinthemaking pic.twitter.com/FMbpgxTrPC

— Ethiopian Airlines (@flyethiopian) November 16, 2015

The company had a reception today where they discussed the milestone news.

Reception of Ethiopian All women functioned Flight pic.twitter.com/YXKRqmV0uv — Ethiopian Airlines (@flyethiopian) November 18, 2015

The airline’s CEO, Tewolde GebreMariam, said the move is to inspire young female Africans:

“Above all, this is an ample opportunity to inspire young African female students to believe in their dreams and embark to fill the skill gap for Aviation professionals.

Women are the continent’s greatest untapped resources, and hereby fully dedicated to ensure the increase number of women in decision making positions on top of key operational areas by consistently grooming and mentoring successor female employees for top managerial, technical and operational positions.

We invite the whole world to watch our all-female operated long haul flight to and from Bangkok.”

Currently the airline’s staff is 30% women, but with this move, they aim to encourage more females to become aviation professionals.

The airline also added more new mother and parent-friendly resources including a nursing room equipped with modern amenities, comfortable reclining chairs, electronic breast pumps and refrigerators to store breast milk.

We’re elated by this news, and fare them ‘Bon Voyage‘!