Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (DV)

Mangaluru, Mar 8: Air India celebrated Women's Day in Mangaluru in a unique way by sending its all women crew Air India Express flight to Dammam.

Air India Express flight no IX885 took off from Mangaluru international airport at 5.05 pm on Tuesday, March 8.

Commander captain Taniya Anand, co-pilot Yuvika Sandhoo and cabin crew in-charge Deepa Natarajan, CC Neha Bijoria, CC Shalini Kinkar and CC Chinju Chandran were the crew.

The crew also celebrated International Women's day by cutting the cake at the airport before the departure.

Addressing the gathering, Air India station manager of Mangaluru Nagesh Shetty said, "Air India Express celebrates this special day from the point of celebrating womanhood. Elsewhere we operated 20 domestic flights and a couple of international flights with all-women crews. Air India Express has 856 staff, out of which 360 are female employees, constituting 42% of the total Air India Express work force. Out of these, 48 women are pilots, 257 are air hostesses, 8 engineering personnel and company secretary and some are staff of the communications department. The deputy chief of commercial department of Air India Express and two out of four of its board members are women."

Commander Captain Taniya speaking to media said, "I have been flying from 8 years. I am flying all-women crew flight for the third time. Last time it was Trivandrum to Dubai. It takes 4 hours to Dammam from here."

Co-pilot Captain Yuvika Sandhoo said, "I have been flying from 6 years. This is a proud moment for us."

Airport director J T Radhakrishna and others were present.