First female flies high at Qantas: meet the next generation of aviators
PARTNER CONTENT: First Officer Allegra Nash once watched Qantas planes overhead as a child - now her father spots the flying kangaroo to catch glimpses of his daughter at work.
As a child, Allegra Nash would look up into the sky and watch the planes overhead, day dreaming that one day she might be flying an aircraft bearing the famous Qantas logo.
Now, it’s her dad who looks up at the sky to find the Flying Kangaroo as he tries to identify which plane his daughter is piloting.
“I remember seeing the Flying Kangaroo up in the sky when I was a kid.
“It’s really funny, now it’s my dad who’s looking up at the sky to see if I’m coming in because our home sits under one of the flight paths.
“He likes to sit on the trampoline and watch my flight coming in,” said Allegra, now first officer with QantasLink.
She is a graduate of the Qantas Group Pilot Academy in Toowoomba, Queensland, and is part of a new generation of female pilots being developed by the national carrier.
And she was part of history earlier this year when she took part in one of more than 50 flights operated entirely by women in the lead up to International Women’s Day 2025.
The flights were planned, dispatched and operated by more than 250 female pilots, cabin crew, engineers, airport and operations centre team members across Qantas, QantasLink and Jetstar, and spanned more than 20 routes in Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
International Women’s Day has been a big part of Allegra’s professional journey.
“At high school, I did a project for International Women’s Day and got to tour the Qantas air base and go on the flight simulator, and I 100 per cent knew then that becoming a pilot was option A for me,” the 22-year-old recalls.
It wasn’t all smooth flying for Sydney-based Allegra, who was taken into the Queensland academy during Covid.
“There were a couple of hurdles to get across the border during Covid but we got there in the end,” she said.
“Being part of the program offers an accelerated pathway into the group, which is really exciting. That means that as a cadet with low hours I can join QantasLink which is an opportunity you don’t really get anywhere else, so that’s pretty awesome.
“It’s a lot of fun; Toowoomba is a beautiful place, up on the hill there. The community is really great.
“It is competitive to get into the academy, it’s a very popular course. “The best part about the course is the friendships you make, the relationships you have with the instructors and all the ground staff and all your peers as well.
“That really fosters a good sense of community. Now that I’m working at Qantas Link, I’m working with the same peers that I’ve had at the academy, so it’s a full-circle moment and it’s nice.” Through Flight Training Adelaide (FTA), the Qantas Group Pilot Academy provides world-class, customised pilot training for the Australian aviation industry and some of the world’s leading airlines. FTA is focused on producing future airline captains, rather than simply training students to obtain a licence, with significant investment in next-generation aircraft and simulators.
The academy is a school for students with little to no flying experience and graduates are extended an invitation to attend a Qantas Group Accelerate Assessment Centre. Students are mentored by Qantas Group pilots.
If successful, graduates are then eligible to seek employment as a pilot with QantasLink, Jetstar or Network Aviation Australia.
The academy has a scholarship program, aiming to remove barriers to entry and strengthen the industry by enhancing diversity in the pilot population, including women and First Nations people.
“Qantas embodies what it means to be Australian. We use it to get everywhere, to see your family, to see your friends, to go on holidays – it’s a huge part of our life in Australia,” Allegra said.
“I think Qantas is hugely significant in backing Australia in so many different ways. It connects regional communities and it gave me the opportunity to go through the Qantas Pilot Academy.
Qantas supports sport and the Olympics and causes like breast cancer as well, so many different ways.
“To be able to connect regional communities is so important. I love it when we have kids on our flights and they’re flying off to see their extended families, so it’s great to know we are connecting families in that way.”
This article is part of the Back Australia series, which is supported by Australian Made, Harvey Norman, Westpac, Bunnings, Coles, TechnologyOne, REA Group, Cadbury, R.M.Williams, Qantas, Vodafone and BHP.
