Erlier today, November 19 2015, Ethiopian Airlines made history with its first ever female-only operated flight on the Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Bangkok, Thailand route. The pilot, cabin crew, ticketing desks and traffic control were all women. Currently the airline’s staff is 30% women, but with this move, they aim to encourage more females to become aviation professionals.
The airline said the historic flight was an “opportunity to inspire young African female students to believe in their dreams”. The ground crew inspecting the plane before take off was also made up of only women.
The pilot, Captain Amsale Gualu said: “This flight shows us that if women get equal opportunities and work hard I’m sure they can achieve whatever they want in all fields including the aviation industry.”
Amsale Gualu
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.” He added.
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.
