An all-female flight crew is about as rare now is it always was. (photo by U.S. Air Force)
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been amended to correct a statement that this was United’s first-ever all-female flight crew. It was actually United’s first all-female flight crew on a flight to deliver a new plane.
The days on the mini-skirted stewardess on airplanes may seem long gone, but discrimination is still in the air at airlines around the world, inside and out, be it alleged threatended firings of flight attendants at Qatar Airways for getting married or pregnant without company permission or a note left by a passenger that says, “the cockpit is no place for a woman.”
Recognizing the problem, United Airlines decided to make a statement for a delivery of a new Boeing 737-900 ER narrow body aircraft to Chicago O’Hare Airport, putting together its first all female cockpit crew during a delivery flight in United history, with Captain Kim Noakes and First Officer Jan Lumbrazo at the helm. It remained woman only in the passenger cabin as well, with the flight attendant crew and United Airlines employees in every seat.
The flight also marked the first anniversary of an internal organization at United called uIMPACT, which helps to promote and empower women who work for the world’s second-largest airline. Considering women only account for about 7% of all pilots in the United States, but 80% of flight attendants, the group, and others like it, appears to have its work cut out.
Happily, change seems well underway, as Lumbrazo pointed out to KPLU News, “I get surprise, I get cheers, I get high fives” when people find out she’s a pilot. But the greatest impact, she tells Runway Girl Network, comes from inviting young fliers into the cockpit before a flight. “Getting to see more female pilots is what may change things in the future.”