International Women’s Day: SWISS Flies to New York with an All-female Crew

Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) marked this year’s International Women’s Day by operating its flight LX 22 from Geneva to New York with an all-female crew in both the cockpit and the cabin.

When the Airbus A330-300 with flight LX 22 to New York took off from Geneva this morning (March 8), it had an unusual team on board: to mark today’s International Women’s Day, the two-member cockpit crew and ten-strong cabin crew consisted solely of female personnel. In marking the occasion in this way, SWISS aims to inspire more women to embark on careers within the company that are still largely a male preserve.

While women make up the majority of SWISS’s maître de cabine and flight attendant corps, they are still in the clear minority on the flight deck, where the present 55 women pilots account for just over four percent of the 1,308-member cockpit crew corps. “The proportion of female pilots is rising, though, and we’re very pleased about that”, says Head of Human Resources Reto Schmid.

“SWISS is very keen to support women at work and promote their careers. And we would love to see their numbers grow, especially in our technical fields. We also aim to have more female staff in management positions.”

Women already account for a large proportion of SWISS’s ground staff corps, where 1,640 women work alongside 2,020 men. The company’s management positions are currently occupied by 168 women and 486 men. Males and females are roughly equally represented among the company’s intern and apprentice staff.

International Women’s Day is also being marked at the other companies within the Lufthansa Group. Four further long-haul flights — by Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines — are also heading for New York with nearly all-women crews.