Air India Celebrates International Women Day By Putting Women To Work

To honor and appreciate women this International Women’s Day, Air India’s putting ‘em all to work. The airline will operate 20 all-women crewed flights—domestically and internationally—to celebrate International Women’s Day, but this trek’s particularly memorable for it’s length. Additionally, the 9,000-mile flight from New Delhi to San Francisco, which touched down earlier today, is the longest entirely female-operated flight ever.

But it’s not only the flight crew that consists of women. Everyone from the staff overseeing the boarding to the four ladies in the control tower are women. Quite the celebration—though one could argue making women work and men not is the opposite of a feminine celebration.

“This year for the first time, on the world’s longest non-stop flight, entire flight operations from
cockpit crew to cabin crew, check-in staff, doctor, customer care staff, ATC (air traffic control)
and the entire ground-handling…were handled by women,” Air India said in a statement, and Air India CMD Ashwani Lohani added, that the flight would be a symbol of “women empowerment.”