All-women crew makes debut in Air India Express

Chennai, Jul 27 (UNI) In a first-of-its-kind achievement, Air India Express, the international budget carrier of Air India, today operated an all-women crew flight to Singapore from Chennai.

The Flight IX-662, with 182 passengers on board, was commanded by Capt Chameli Krottapalli, who today became the first woman commander of the airline.

The operation of the all-women crew flight was in recognition of Capt Chameli's achievement of becoming the first woman commander of the airlines. She joined the Air India in 2004.

In a simple photo shoot function organised at the airport to mark the occasion, an elated Capt Chameli said she was thrilled and proud.

''I feel very proud of this moment,'' she said.

Captain and Co-pilot Amrit Namdhari was equally elated and could not hide her jubilation. ''I am very happy today as hitherto male pilots had been operating the flights.'' Apart from Capt Chameli and Amrit, the other crew members were S Bhanu, P Bhutia, S Divya and Binal Valand.

The flight took off at 1425 hrs and would reach Singapore at 2100 hrs (local time). The return flight, also to be operated by the all women crew, would leave Singapore at 2210 hrs (local time) and arrive here at 2330 hrs, an Air India release said.

The airline has a total of 76 pilots, of which six were women, the release said.

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