Mumbai: Two days prior to International Women’s Day on March 8, national carrier Air India will salute women power with the longest flying operation on the longest route. Official sources from the airline said that on March 6, an Air India flight will take off from Delhi to San Francisco, which is the longest flying route, with an all-women crew on board.
Sources informed The Asian Age that to commemorate International Women’s Day, all four pilots as well as the crew operating the Delhi to San Francisco flight will be women. Furthermore, the flight dispatcher and flight engineer will also be women. Line safety will be conducted by women and safety audit will be conducted under the chief of flight safety, Air India, Harpreet AD Singh. The cherry on the cake will be that load and trim staff of the flight too will be strictly women.
Ms Singh told this newspaper that while the airline celebrates International Women’s Day every year by deploying women crew, this is the first time that an all women crew will operate the longest flight and will also be rewarded after operation. Official sources said that while the airline operates a few flights with entirely female crew every year on International Women’s Day, this is the first time a complete cabin crew will be on board the longest flight route of the national carrier. To achieve the target, Air India is also working with the Indian Women’s Pilot Association.
To mark International Women’s Day last year, Air India operated four “all women crew” flights to international and domestic destinations, with one flown by two pilots who were also part of a similar feat way back in 1985. On the international network, two such flights that were operated were the Delhi-Melbourne and Mumbai-Muscat-Mumbai routes. While, AI806 Mumbai-Delhi and AI475 Delhi-Jodhpur-Mumbai were the flights operated by an all-women crew on domestic routes.
