All-female-led SriLankan flight on 8 March: Beauties on sky

Female crew team 

cabin crew 

This job doesn’t know a gender role. Both males and females are capable and dedicated to the job that they do. Every day is equally important as responsibilities do not change. All women those women are capable in doing any profession if they are hardworking and dedicated to what they do 

– Captain Madini Wijesinghe

Flying with SriLankan Airlines gives me the opportunity to travel around the world to be an ambassador to take the Sri Lankan flag to the world. I want young women to believe in themselves, have positive attitudes towards what they do and set high goals to achieve their dreams 

– Flight Officer 

Ayodya Ranasinghe

It is really a surprise as this is the first time that we are in such a flight that females are controlling the plane from the cockpit to serving food. No woman should dare to think that there was nothing impossible for women to achieve if they believe in themselves and work hard towards their goals 

– Tara Hogan and 

Daisy Cullinan

SriLankan Airlines’ female crew members are a fine example for professionalism, dedication and commitment on par with any other airline in the world

 – Flight Manager Roshani Dissanayake

We arranged this flight to showcase the professionalism, capabilities, dedication and commitment of the female crew members of the airline

 – SriLankan Airlines Communication Manager Deepal Perera

Text and pix by Shanika Sriyananda

Should a woman’s role be celebrated and be limited only to a mere day? Many are of the view that her role should be celebrated and recognised every day and ‘she’ should not be in the limelight for commercial gains.

Anyway, it was a long story how the world finally got together to declare the International Women’s Day mainly to advocate gender equality to recognise women’s immense contribution to shape the world to a better place.

On 8 March, an all-female operating crew of SriLankan Airlines flight – UL 404 – flew from Colombo to Bangkok to commemorate International Women’s Day. 

The eight female crew member team led by Captain Madini Wijesinghe flew from Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) carrying 95 passengers to Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Thailand and returned from there with 130 passengers to BIA on 8 March. 

For Captain Wijesinghe, who is a seasoned pilot with 17 years of experience, weather and balancing her career and family life are more challenging and sees no difference in flying on a day dedicated for women.

“This job doesn’t know a gender role. Both males and females are capable and dedicated to the job that they do. Every day is equally important as responsibilities do not change. In this flight it is a Captain and First Officer relationship at the cockpit to make a safe landing,” she said with a smile. 

Her Flight Officer Ayodya Ranaisnghe, who has nine years of experience, also expressing the same sentiments said she doesn’t feel special flying on Women’s Day. 

“It is just another flight, which gives us a novel experience. Each flight is different with the aircraft, different weather conditions and different crew members. Every day it is a challenge,” the duo who also flew an all-women crew operating flight on 7 March said.

Wijesinghe joined SriLankan Airlines as a cadet pilot at the age of 21 and gradually promoted to a First Officer and then to the Captain. 

She, who has over 11,000 flying hours, said her first flight to Tiruchirappalli (Trichy) International Airport in 2009, the first flight to Gallan Islands as a Captain and the flying with her pilot husband again to Gallan Islands two years ago were recorded as her memorable flights in her life.

Balancing work and family, a challenge 

 “As women, balancing work and family life is more challenging for us. As a mother of two kids, I am lucky as I have the full support of my family to do my task. On this Women’s Day, I pay my gratitude to four women – my mother, mother-in-law and two single mothers – at home who are taking house chaos to facilitate me to continue to do my work stress-free,” Wijesinghe said adding her Women’s Day message to all women that women are capable in doing any profession if they are hardworking and dedicated to what they do.

The Flight Officer Ranasinghe, who has over 6,000 flying hours, said it gave her the opportunity to travel around the world to be an ambassador to take the Sri Lankan flag to the world through her flying with SriLankan Airlines.

She wanted young women to believe in themselves, have positive attitudes towards what they do and set high goals to achieve their dreams. 

“Young women like me can achieve their goals and make their dreams come true if they work hard,” she said.

The all-female crew of the flight said that SriLankan Airlines provided them equal opportunities despite gender and they never felt different.

No gender disparity; all are treated equally

 “Whatever the things that males are undergoing, we, females are undergoing the same. There is no difference,” they said. 

Wijesinghe and Ranaisnghe, both recalled the SriLankan Airlines’ first female pilot Captain Anusha Mohommed with gratitude for setting a fine example for all other females to follow her to become pilots. 

“A flight flew together with her as a First Officer is a remarkable journey in my life,” Wijesinghe recalled.

Tara Hogan and Daisy Cullinan are young students from England who have spent three weeks in Sri Lanka and are flying to Thailand for a vacation before they start their university education in September. Both were amazed to hear that they were in an all-female-led flight to Bangkok. 

“It is really a surprise as this is the first time that we are in such a flight that females are controlling the plane from the cockpit to serve food,” Tara, who once visited Sri Lanka, said. 

Both girls said that it showed the power of women and displayed their capabilities were no different to male pilots.

“The flight is running smoothly and they treated us kindly showing their excellent hospitality skills,” Daisy opined while saying that their flight led by females made them feel inspired, empowered and strong.

Power of women

 They said back home they would tell their friends about their experience in a female-led flight and would give them the message that no women should dare to think that there was nothing impossible for women to achieve if they believe in themselves and work hard towards that.

A US passenger, who lives in Thailand and wants to be anonymous, was very confident in the capabilities of women in any task including piloting. 

“I have flown many times in all female-led flights. For me, it really doesn’t make any difference as long as women are capable and confident in what they do. Any job does not know gender but delivering the outcome is important. I know how strong women are in delivering their tasks as I have three daughters at home,” he said.

Flight Manager Roshani Dissanayake, who has been flying for SriLankan Airlines for the last 27 years, said SriLankan Airline’s female crew members were a fine example for professionalism, dedication and commitment on par with any other airline in the world. 

“The slogan of the International Women’s Day is empowering women all over the world. As crew members of the SriLankan Airline, we are always empowered and there is no difference in treating us considering the gender. We are being treated equally,” she said, highlighting the need of family support for women to fly high in any task that is given to them.

Family support

 A mother of two grown up boys she said the support that she was getting from her family made her to deliver well and every woman needed that support to progress in any work that they do.

“Without that support no woman can go in the ladder even if we are empowered and strong to face life,” Dissanayake asserted.

Disasnayake, who had her first all-female led flight in 2024, said that being in a female led flight they work as a team and have a good understanding about each other.

The all-female led flight included Cabin Supervisor Chathuri Wickramasinghe and four flight attendants – Prasadi Jayasuriya, Kesha Karunaratne, Natasha Perera and Piumi Ranawaka. 

“There are a lot of unforgettable incidents, especially when the flight is caught in air pockets due to bad weather conditions. But we have been trained well to face such unexpected circumstances when serving passengers,” Cabin Supervisor Wickramasinghe said.

They also encounter passengers with unruly behaviour due to consuming liquor. Although they are prohibited to talk firmly to passengers, there are occasions they have to show their firmness to control them while on air until they are being handed over to the security when landed. 

An unruly passenger 

The media team, which flew in this flight had also witnessed such an encounter with a passenger claimed to be a South Asian businessman, who clad in a short and a T-shirt and becoming a nuisance to passengers seated around and also to young beautiful flight attendants. He seemed to have gotten into the flight after having liquor and in a while, he went out of control demanding cigarettes and more liquor from the flight attendants.The drama went on for more than an hour despite kind requests from young flight attendants to be seated and they are not supposed to sell cigarettes on board.

When he was standing and trying to open the overhead luggage despite repeated requests by them, it was the turn of the senior among the crew members to take the task to control him. The Cabin Supervisor Wickramasinghe promptly activated and shut the luggage without leaving the passenger to think and requested to fasten the belt as the pilots had already announced about landing. 

Then he tried to touch the passing flight attendants and Wickramasinghe’s firm but gentle warning: “You are not supposed to touch crew members” made the passenger silent and requested pardon. 

People think being a flight attendant is a rosy job and they only serve food as waitresses. But it is truly a job beyond that which needs kindness, hospitality, patience, prompt decision making, tolerance, braveness and motherly touch.

SriLankan Airlines Communication Manager Deepal Perera explaining why they had arranged an all-female led flight said they wanted to showcase the professionalism, capabilities, dedication and commitment of the female crew members of the airline.

“We also want to say that the skills of our female crew members are par with any international airline and they are capable of handling any challenge or situations on air,” he said.