Dubai: Emirates has just completed a transatlantic flight operated entirely by an all-women crew, in order to highlight that women are capable of carrying out tasks in a male-dominated field.
The special flight EK 225, operated in time for International Women’s Day, flew thousands of miles from Dubai all the way to San Francisco in the United States, and this was all made possible by the more than 75 women from more than 25 nationalities.
Dubbed the “Superwomen flight,” the world’s largest passenger plane was piloted by Canadian captain Patricia Bischoff and British first officer Rebecca Lougheed.
Its cabin crew was led by purser Weronica Formela from Poland. But it wasn’t just the cockpit and cabin crew that made the flight special.
All aspects of the journey, from “above wing” to “below wing” activities in the lead up to the departure, were performed by women.
As shown in a video that captured the scenes behind the trip, the various workers required to fly a plane, from technicians, engineers, ramp duty controllers to caterers and security officers were all women.
There were also Emirati women working in flight dispatch and cargo operations, and other female staff doing security checks on the ground before the plane was cleared to fly.
In a total, a team of more than 75 women from more than 25 nationalities worked on the flight. According to Emirates, this mirrors the overall diversity within the Emirates Group which has more than 160 nationalities on its payroll.
“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,” said Abdulaziz Al Ali, executive vice president of human resources at Emirates.
The company employs close to 1,150 Emirati women alone who work in diverse functions across the business, and are represented in senior managerial and executive roles.
So far, nearly half (40 per cent) of the staff at Emirates are women, with the majority working as cabin crew. More than 20 per cent of all supervisorial and managerial roles are held by women.
Check out the scenes behind the flight here:
