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Air India Makes History With All-Female Crew

It is 2017, after all.

This is history in the making.

Last week, an all-female crew on an Air India flight travelled 15,300 km from San Francisco to New Delhi in 15-and-a-half hours.

"The entire flight was operated by the women staff of eight departments," the airline said in a statement on Facebook. "This is the first time that this audit was done by a female officer in around the world trip."

The all-female departments included a cockpit crew, cabin crew, check-in staff, doctor, customer care staff and the entire ground crew from flight dispatcher to technician, the airline noted.

Chairman and Managing Director Air India, Ashwani Lohani (C) stands with the pilots and crew members of an all-women Air India, Delhi - San Francisco - Delhi flight as they pose for a photograph during an event on the eve of International Women's Day in New Delhi.

"The flight was in the safe hands of Capt. Sunita Narula, Capt. Kshamta Bajpai, Capt. Indira Singh and Capt. Gunjan Aggarwal," the airline continued.

All this, just days leading up to International Women's Day (IWD) on Wednesday.

According to CNN, Air India is hoping to win a Guinness World Record to mark IWD, scheduling a series of all-women flights for Wednesday.

The record includes flying around the world, which goes from New Delhi to San Francisco back to New Delhi.

Indian women pilots from Air India applaud during an event on the eve of International Women's Day in New Delhi.

In January, the airline announced a row of seats in economy class on their domestic flights to be reserved for women travelling alone.

"These special seats, which can be availed by such women passengers, will come at no extra cost," Air India said in a statement.

CNN notes this special row was introduced to fight in-flight sexual assaults, after reports of female passengers being groped by men on-board.

And although an all-female crew is one way to celebrate equality, a lot has to be done to ensure the ongoing safety of all female passengers.

Indian women pilots from Air India pose for a photograph during an event on the eve of International Women's Day in New Delhi.

In 2015, Ethiopian Airlines also made history by sending an all-female crew from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Bangkok, Thailand.

Like Air India, every member of the crew was a woman, from the pilot to ground dispatchers.

“Women are the continent’s greatest untapped resources," Ethiopian Airlines' group CEO Tewolde GebreMariam said in a statement that year.

According to the Gender Gap Grader, women only make up approximately 5.44 per cent of commercial pilots globally.

In the U.S., 5.12 per cent of airline or commercial pilots are women.

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