While I’m of course an airline product geek and a points geek, I’m also an aviation geek. Growing up my dream was always to be a pilot, and in particular, to be a pilot for a foreign carrier (because that’s the only way you’ll become the captain of a heavy aircraft under the age of 50). To this day I have a special fascination with pilots on Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Etihad, Qatar, etc., where you’ll find pilots from every corner of the globe.
I also always have a big smile on my face when I board a flight on a “random” airline and quickly detect an American accent from the captain (I’ve had this on Fiji Airways and Hainan in the past couple of years, for example), as it makes me think fondly of what could have been. Oh well, I guess I can’t complain about my current gig too much, as I fly about as much as they do, but just a couple of rows behind.
Anyway, last month for International Women’s Day, Emirates uploaded a video about a “superwomen” Airbus A380 flight from Dubai to San Francisco. Here’s how they described this:
Watch us operate a ‘Superwomen’ Airbus A380 flight to San Francisco ahead of International Women’s Day. EK225 was handled by over 75 women colleagues representing Emirates’ Flight Operations, Service Delivery, Engineering, Airport Services, Catering, dnata, Emirates SkyCargo, Transguard and Group Security teams, led by Captain Patricia Bischoff from Canada, First Officer Rebecca Lougheed from the UK and Purser Weronika Formela from Poland.
Here’s that video:
Now the airline has uploaded another cool video highlighting women flying around the world, which I really enjoyed. In this video they follow their female pilots flying the 777 and A380 to five continents in March 2018:
How cool to see, and they sure do have a lot of female Canadian pilots, eh? This is of course cool, though it could have been even cooler if they had all female pilots on all of those flights.
Not highlighted is Captain Ashley, who Emirates has highlighted in the past in some of their ad campaigns:
She was even on the Ellen Show:
I hope to fly with any of these women on my upcoming Emirates flights!
Do not get mwe wrong..it is a great report about women in general are pusuing gender equality here..but I would rather see specifically with ME airlines that they are pursuing to give their own/local women a chance to show their skills...Are they any Emirati women as pilots in EK or EY...or any Arabic women in any Arabic airlines in ME in general?? That will be a great step..
Oops of and not on work.
Regardless, most of the ME have archaic laws that set international gender equality back decades.
@Rationalfeminist
Somewhat; but as a rational feminist myself, I support encouraging both men and women to pursue careers in underrepresented fields on work.
Nobody loves women more than middle eastern companies
I find it difficult to reconcile the "women are equal to men" argument with the "LOOK...it's a WOMAN...and she's FLYING A PLANE!" cheerleading.
I also love whenever I'm on a plane and I realize that the pilot was a former Varig one. :)
@debit
You are wrong, if you really get to know Dubai..lots of racism underneath all the gold, champagne, malls and 5* hotels..it is all about money amd how to earn..fast!
@ ETHFlyer
Correct!!
I want the Best Pilot there is Flying my Plane . Male,Female ,Black ,White, Green,Rich,Poor or UGLY . Lets be open minded and let Fools fly the aircraft to Help them Advance as they would say so we Crash and Burn when the flying gets Rough..
CHEERs
The Middle East is an intellectual black hole. Anyone who looks up to the Middle East simply lacks life experience.
@debit. You compare an emirate Dubai 3 million people with a country of 330 million with a very diverse population
40% of the population of the most populous state California which has 13 times the population of Dubai is Hispanic. 15% Asian let alone all the other groups
50% of the population speak more than one language 27% was not born in the USA.
I recently flew on a US carrier...
@debit. You compare an emirate Dubai 3 million people with a country of 330 million with a very diverse population
40% of the population of the most populous state California which has 13 times the population of Dubai is Hispanic. 15% Asian let alone all the other groups
50% of the population speak more than one language 27% was not born in the USA.
I recently flew on a US carrier from LAX. The crew were very mixed and spoke several languages between them.
True there are parts of the US which are not so diverse
This is awesome. I know Dominique Cotte (Algiers flight) from Melbourne - it's amazing to see her flying for Emirates!
Actually, the first two videos were fine, but the last two were slightly sickly.
Dubai seems to be more cosmopolitan and less racist than the redneck scum of the USofA.
That's the first thing and the only thing that came to my mind.
Thanks for posting this, Lucky.
No grandmas in their cabin crew team??