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National carrier Air India, continues the tradition of operating all women flights on International Womens’ Day, 8th of March.
The airline will operate flights with all women crew together with women dispatchers, women load and trim staff, women engineers, women staff at check-in counters, women doctor for crew breathalyser test, women staff for security checks and women conducting the LOSA safety audit.
This year, the ultra-long-haul (ULH) Delhi-Toronto non-stop flight AI-187 will be operated by commanders Capt. Rashmi Miranda and Capt. Sunita Narula and First officers Capt. Varsha Sheoran and Capt. Nidhi Suri. The flight will be despatched by Ms Rashmi Verma.
Captains Miranda and Narula, also commanded the first ULH all women flight ever, when they flew AI-141 Mumbai-New York JFK non-stop last year.
The other flights which are being operated by an all-women crew are:
- AI-409/410 Delhi-Patna-Delhi
- AI-469 Delhi-Raipur-Nagpur-Delhi
- AI-811/812 Delhi-Lucknow-Delhi
- AI-603/604 Mumbai-Bangalore-Mumbai
- AI-569 Chennai-Mumbai
- IX-671 Chennai-Colombo-Chennai
- IX-302 Kozhikode-Mumbai-Kozhikode
Air India’s tradition of all-women crew flights commenced in November 1985 when Capt. Saudamini Deshmukh and Capt. Nivedita Bhasin operated an Indian Airlines Fokker Friendship flight from Kolkata, West Bengal to Silchar. The same team operated the first all-women jet flight, an Indian Airlines Boeing 737 from Mumbai to Goa in 1989. The first international flight was operated in an Airbus A310 to Singapore on March 8, 2004, with Capt. Rashmi Miranda commanding (yes she will operate the YYZ flight tomorrow) and Capt. Kshmata Bajpai as first officer.
Enjoy yourselves ladies, and in case you come across some MCP crackpot who refuses to fly with women, feel free to show him the door, preferably with the tip of your shoe deeply embedded where the sun don’t shine.
