Ethiopian Airlines makes history with all-female flight crew

Courtesy Online Ethiopia

Ethiopian Airlines dispatched its first-ever flight operated by a crew that is all female to Bangkok on Thursday.

Women filled every role on the flight from the pilots and cabin crew to in flight ramp operations as well as flight dispatchers on ground, the company revealed in a press release.

The airline says it wants to promote women’s empowerment and encourage more African women to pursue aviation careers.

In an earlier statement, Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde Gebremariam said attracting more women to jobs in aviation is one of the reasons for hosting the all-female flight, together with empowering women.

“It’s going to be very inspiring for all the women all over the world, aviation women and particularly the African woman. Because, as you know, here in the continent of Africa, we are lagging behind in women empowerment. So this is going to inspire all the school girls in Africa that they have a very bright future in the 21st century,” he said.

Although one-third of its employees are women, the figure is smaller when it comes to positions such as pilots and technicians, says Ethiopian Airlines.

Haymanot Endale, a 22-year-old cabin maintenance technician who has been working at Ethiopian Airlines for two years, said even though there are many girls working as flight attendants, as a technician, she mostly works with men.

“I think that outside of the Ethiopian Airlines, girls think that the work is very difficult, so they did not enter [come work for] this company. But we enter and we see that it is very easy,” Endale said.