Malawi Airlines has urged women in the country not to look down on themselves but venture into challenging careers such as aviation which are male dominated.
Public Relations Officer (PRO) for Malawi Airlines, Joseph Josiah said the Airline is in the process of inspiring young girls to consider taking up challenging careers such as aviation.
“The main problem is that our girls look at careers such as aviation to be too technical and too difficult and therefore suitable only for boys. Whenever girls think of a career in aviation, they only aim at becoming air hostesses; jobs such as being pilots, flight technicians, air traffic controllers etc. are all considered for men,” he said.
According to Josiah, they recently hosted an all female operated flight from Malawi to Tanzania to motivate girls and they will continue organizing similar events to ensure that there is change of mindset and women start believing that they can venture into challenging careers as men.
He explained that the airline has streamlined gender issues in all their policies, including; recruitment policy, management policy, and workplace policy in striving to create a gender inclusive environment at all levels of their operations.
However, the PRO said Malawi Airlines has no training institution for pilots in Malawi but rather they send their pilots for training in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and what they do as an Airline is to provide necessary support for the trainees.
According Josiah, their desire as Malawi Airline is to see diversity in the cockpit and that women should be in the changing world of work by 2030 with a 50:50 representation of men and female pilots. Currently, Malawi has two female pilots; Fellie Mkandawire and Yolanda Kaunda who has also made it to Captain.