Ethiopian Airlines made history with its first ever female-only operated flight on the Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Bangkok, Thailand route today, November 19, 2015.
The all female crew and ground staff will be women from the pilots to cabin crew, from ticketing desks to traffic control. The announcement was made from the Twitter page – @FlyEthiopian
The airline’s CEO, Tewolde GebreMariam, said ”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.
See tweets below:
Tonight the first 'All Woman Functioned Flight' of @flyethiopian will be taking off from ADD to #BKK. #StarAlliance pic.twitter.com/Pi8vdm5K8r
— Star Alliance (@staralliance) November 18, 2015
#happeningnow, pictures from All Women Function Flight farewell event, © Reuters pic.twitter.com/42GeLnRjMq
— Ethiopian Airlines (@flyethiopian) November 18, 2015
Another gr8 role model! @flyethiopian's first all women functioned flight! pic.twitter.com/I5BX1LDdkP #PilotsNews #avgeeks #pilots #pilotlife
— PilotSAAM, France ✈️ (@PilotSAAM) November 17, 2015
Final preparations before the @flyethiopian 'All Woman Functioned Flight' last night. Congratulations! #StarAlliance pic.twitter.com/EWwqh29rMx
— Star Alliance (@staralliance) November 19, 2015