Finnair Celebrates International Men’s Day With All-Male Crew

There’s still quite a gender gap in the airline industry, with a disproportionate number of pilots being male, and a disproportionate number of flight attendants being female. Airlines will sometimes have special celebrations with all-female crews, so here’s an interesting twist on that.

Finnair operates flight with all-male crew

Today is (apparently) International Men’s Day. We often see airlines commemorate International Women’s Day, but I don’t recall ever seeing an airline celebrate the equivalent for men. Well, Finnair is the exception, as the airline has today operated a flight with an all-male crew. This was the case for Finnair flight AY1331, from Helsinki (HEL) to London (LHR), using an Airbus A350-900.

The crew consisted of 10 people, comprised of two pilots and eight flight attendants. So, why is this important? Finnair highlights how only around 10% of cabin crew at the airline are male, but the company hopes to see that number grow in the future.

I think this is a fun concept, and it would be nice to see a closer to 50/50 gender ratio in both the cockpit and cabin.

Diversity at airlines goes both ways

A Fly Guy’s Cabin Crew Lounge highlights how at some airlines, hiring of flight attendants is still exclusively based on gender. Now, the policies do vary significantly by airline, but perhaps an extreme example is India’s largest airline, IndiGo, which only hires female flight attendants.

What’s interesting is that while those gender restrictions exist in the cabin, roughly 14% of the carrier’s pilots are female, which is way above the global average of 7-9%. IndiGo claims to be “a global leader in diversity” because of this, and also highlights how it is addressing “the skewed gender ratio in cockpit crews,” and is “paving the way for a more diverse and inclusive aviation industry in the years to come.” That just doesn’t apply in the cabin, I guess. 😉

In fairness, I suspect part of the motivation here is that IndiGo flight attendants share hotel rooms on layovers, and that is a bit more complicated with mixed genders. Then again, it seems easy enough to just try to pair male flight attendants on trips, so it’s hardly a hurdle that can’t be overcome.

Bottom line

While we’re used to seeing airlines celebrate International Women’s Day, it’s rare to see an airline celebrating International Men’s Day. Finnair has operated an all-male flight today, intended to highlight how only 10% of flight attendants at the airline are male, and the airline wants to change that. While an unconventional initiative nowadays, I think this is still pretty cool.

What do you make of Finnair’s all-male flight?