UK & Ireland Travel Trade

24 August 2022

On Wednesday 23 August 2018, SAA celebrated women’s month with a flight operated between Johannesburg and São Paulo, Brazil, by an all-female crew.

The all-female flight highlighted women of SAA in the context of transformation that is taking place at SAA and in South Africa.

SAA stands shoulder to shoulder with our global peers with 69 female pilots (six of whom are captains), 114 female aircraft technicians, and a whopping 45% of the workforce being female. SAA is making strides in addressing gender equity.

SAA as the national flag carrier, annually supports and celebrates Women’s Month with the rest of the country. The airline has found that an excellent way of showing its support of women’s progress and to showcase the progress it has made in advancing women in the work place is by deploying a flight with an all-female crew as well as progress in other areas of SAA where careers were previously occupied predominantly by males.

“We salute the role played by women of SAA in building an airline that meets world standards in terms of its safety record, on-time performance and customer service ratings.

“SAA in previous years operated all-female operated flights to a domestic and regional destination, and this is the first intercontinental flight, in the 84-year-old history of the airline,” says Tlali Tlali, SAA Spokesperson.

The flight was piloted by Captain by Jane Trembath, with co-pilots Senior First Officer Asnath Mahapa and Senior First Officer Annemari Smit.

Cabin crew on board included Caroline Moja (Senior Purser), Janine Jansen (Purser), Himlatha Jagatpal, Nozzie Masela, Lerato Madonsela, Reneilwe Phala, Matsheliso Ntilane, Cynthia Nkosi and Mpelane Ndlovu.

Joining the cabin and cockpit crew on the commemorative flight are SAA female executives, Ms Zuks Ramasia, General Manager: Operations; Ms Pumla Luhabe, Chief Commercial Officer; Ms Mphati Qofa, Chief Legal Officer (Interim), and Ms Vuyi Raseroka, GM: Human Resources (Interim).

The ground engineer, flight dispatch, ramp agent, departure controller, Operations Control Centre, and communications in-flight (ZUR) as well as the ground handlers, which all perform important functions adding to smooth operations, were also all female.

Ms Ramasia’s career spans 24 years in airline operations. She started as a Cabin Crewmember and is currently the General Manager Operations. Captain Trembath became the first women in 2007 to command wide-body international flights when she qualified on the Airbus A340. First Officer Mahapa became the first African woman in South Africa to acquire a Commercial Pilots license.