An all-female flight team sent an Emirates plane into the skies this week to help the Dubai-based airline mark International Women’s Day.
More than 75 women from over 25 different nationalities worked on flight EK225 from Dubai to San Francisco which took off on Tuesday.
The A380 aircraft was piloted by Captain Patricia Bischoff from Canada and First Officer Rebecca Lougheed from the UK with cabin crew led by the purser Weronica Formela from Poland.
All ‘above wing’ and ‘below wing’ activities in the lead up to flight departure were also carried out by women – customer service in the airport, ramp operations, technical services and a raft of other roles within the flight dispatch, aircraft appearance, crew operations, catering and security teams.
“Every flight that we operate needs an entire ecosystem of staff from a number of business units to come together and work seamlessly. Emirates is proud that we have women represented in all these key functions,” executive vice president of human resources Abdulaziz Al Ali said.
“Women have been part of the Emirates success story from the start and on International Women’s Day we celebrate their extensive contribution to Emirates and to the broader aviation industry.”
Female employees make up more than 40% of Emirates’ workforce with 1,150 of these Emirati women. The majority of women at the airline work as cabin crew, with over 20% of all supervisorial and managerial roles held by women.
The airline put together a video to document the all-female flight. Check it out:
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