Ethiopian Airlines operated all-female international flight again

Ethiopian Airlines operated its first female flight from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Lagos, Nigeria this week.

Captain Amsale Gualu piloted The Boeing 777 flight which took five and half hours to land in Lagos. She is quoted as saying:

“This flight shows us that if women get equal opportunities and work hard, I’m sure they can achieve whatever they want in all fields including the aviation industry.”

This is for the second time for the Airlines to operate all female crew international flight. In 2015, Ethiopian Airlines female crew flew from Addis Ababa to Bangkok, Thailand.
It seems the move to use all female crew flight is intended to encourage African women to consider a career in aviation.
Ethiopian Airlines spokesperson is quoted as saying:
“An Ethiopian Airlines spokesperson said: “This is an ample opportunity to inspire young African female students to believe in their dreams and embark to fill the skill gap for Aviation professionals. Women are the continent’s greatest untapped resources, and hereby fully dedicated to ensuring the increased number of women in decision-making positions on top of key operational areas by consistently grooming and mentoring successor female employees for top managerial, technical and operational positions.”
Ethiopian Airlines trains pilots in is own aviation academy which was commissioned in 1964 and trains mostly aviation students from Africa and Middle East countries. Based on information of Ethiopian Airlines website, currently the pilot training school offers programs for Commercial Pilot Licensing.
The Aviation Academy also provides simulator trainings on aircraft simulators.
As much as the seventy years old airlines is a remarkable success story not just in Ethiopia, but in Africa as well, its management in the last ten years is criticized as ethno-centric and biased in favor of Tigraeans, a perception common in other sectors in Ethiopia which gave rise to a resilient and persistent movement against Tigray People’s Liberation Front government. Some in the opposition call Ethiopian Airlines as Tigrean Airlines to denote that it is dominated by Tigreans, they constitute only 5 % of Ethiopia’s 100 million population. Read more here