On Thursday July 5th, 2018, Air Peace made history, when it operated it’s Lagos-Abuja-Owerri flights with an all female-crew, from the cockpit to the cabin.
The flight was commanded by Sinmisola Ajibola, who made history as the airline’s first female captain. She was assisted in the cockpit by Senior First Officer Quincy Owen.
Speaking at a brief ceremony in Abuja, Hadi Sirika, the Minister of State for Aviation, commended Air Peace for joining the league of airlines that had operated flights with an all- female cockpit, cabin crew members, engineers and flight dispatchers.
Sirika who was represented by Talba Alkali, Director, Safety and Technical Policy, Ministry of Transportation, said the feat had shown that the airline was gender friendly. According to Alkali, this is the first time a Nigerian airline is carrying out an all-female flight with a high capacity aircraft, adding that lower capacity aircraft
Also speaking, Allen Onyema, the Chairman of Air Peace, said over 85 per cent of key positions in the airline are held by women, who had demonstrated that they had the capacity to deliver.
He further disclosed that the airline’s Chief Operating Officer, the Chief of Administration and Finance, Vice chairman, Head of Maintenance, Training coordinator, Head of Port Harcourt Station, Head, Abuja station; Head, Enugu Station; Cabin Services manager, Human resources manager, Business Development Manager, Customer Services manager, Head of Legal and Head of Engineering maintenance planning are all women.
Onyema said the airline had employed about 2,000 workers since it began operations over three years ago, stressing that about 1,500 of the employees were women.
The historic event, marked Air Peace as the first indigenous airline in Nigeria that operated an all indigenous female crew with a high performance aircraft Boeing 737-300.
While Arik and Aero Contractors have in the past operated an all-female flight, however, this was done with foreign pilots and a lower capacity aircraft, such as the CRJ and Dash 8 aircraft, respectively.
