Air India to fly longest flight with all-women crew

New Delhi: Air India will commemorate International Women's Day on March 8 by operating the longest all-women flight on its longest route on Sunday.

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The Delhi-San Francisco flight, which will cover 7,831 nautical miles (approximately 14,500 km) in a total of 17 hours, is the first long-distance flight wholly operated and supported by an all-women crew, an airline official claimed.

The flight will be managed by a 14-member crew, apart from the four pilots led by Captain Kshamta Bajpai. The flight dispatchers and flight engineer will be women, while the line safety and safety audit will be conducted by women and the load and trim staff will also be women.

The aircraft used is Boeing 777-LR which is scheduled to take off at 02.35 a.m. on Sunday morning from Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport and travel at an average speed of 500 km per hour. It will return here on the International Women's Day on Tuesday.

Additionally, the national carrier will operate 20 domestic flights with all-women crew on March 8.

Air India was the first airline to operate an all-women flight way back in 1985 to mark International Women's Day, and last year it operated two all-women crew flights on the domestic and two on the international sectors.

"The national carrier (Air India) supports the cause of women in every area," said Harpreet Singh Dey, president of the Indian Women Pilots' Association.