Qantas gets aboard International Women’s Day by operating flights operated by all-female crews

To mark the International Women’s Day on Friday, Qantas and its budget arm Jetstar will operate a series of all-female crewed and controlled flights.

In celebration of international women’s day, Qantas and Jetstar are operating all-female crewed flights on Friday.

There are few industries where the gender balance is more off-kilter than aviation, despite significant progress over the decades.

Throughout the world, a mere 4 per cent of commercial airline pilots are women, and only 3 per cent are aircraft engineers. The Qantas Group is slightly ahead of the game, with 7 per cent of its pilot workforce women, and 4 per cent of its engineers, but it recognises there is still much work to do.

Qantas chief people officer Catherine Walsh said increasing the number of female pilots was not going to happen overnight, with years of training required.

“It’s not something that generally starts after university, it starts in school. We need to encourage more girls to select STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects that support a technical career,” Ms Walsh said.

“We’re expanding our outreach into schools to promote aviation as a career, which hopefully results in more girls choosing subjects that put them on track to join us in the cockpit or hangar in the future.”

In an effort to inspire young women, Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Australia will operate all-female crewed and controlled flights on Friday to mark International Women’s Day.

Qantas flight QF401 from Sydney to Melbourne will be the first cab off the rank at 6am, followed by Jetstar’s Sydney-Gold Coast service at 7.10am.

Virgin Australia will send VA313 from Melbourne to Brisbane at 8.10am with pioneering pilot Deborah Lawrie on board.

Captain Camille Macpherson, with flight attendants Louisa Mak and Bailey Hill.

The 70-year-old was the first woman to fly commercially in Australia after winning a landmark sex discrimination case against Ansett.

Qantas captain Camille Macpherson said she was proud to be operating the IWD flight to “represent some of the amazing women who work in Australian aviation”.

“Aviation offers incredible opportunities for women, whether it’s in the cabin, the hangar, or the flight deck,” Captain Macpherson said. “It’s my great hope that young girls will see us walking through an airport terminal or on board an aircraft and consider a career in aviation.”

At a corporate level, women were making their mark with Australia’s four major airlines currently run by female CEOs: Vanessa Hudson at Qantas, Jetstar’s Steph Tully, Virgin Australia’s Jayne Hrdlicka and Qantas­link’s Rachel Yangoyan.

Air New Zealand also had a female Australian manager in Kathryn O’Brien, who said it was great to see so many women in senior leadership roles in what was traditionally a male-dominated industry. “Aviation and other industries are recognising what women can bring to businesses in leadership roles – that they have unique skills to lead large complex businesses,” Ms O’Brien said. “Women bring a great sense of balance, of being pragmatic and an element of sensitivity and also resilience in how we advance our careers and get to the positions we have.”

As one of only two female CEOs of major airports in Australia, Amelia Evans was keen to see greater gender equality in the industry. The Queensland Airports Limited chief executive, who oversees the Gold Coast, Townsville, Mt Isa and Longreach airports, said she looked forward to the day when women were no longer seen as a novelty in the aviation industry.

“There are a lot of wonderful women who work in airlines and airports, but there’s a lack of women in senior roles, so we need to talk about how we can improve that optic and provide real opportunities for women coming through the pipeline,” Ms Evans said. “It needs to be a conscious decision of airlines and airports to say ‘right, let’s talk loudly about this’.”

Originally published as Qantas gets aboard International Women’s Day by operating flights operated by all-female crews