Ten years of women pilots in the left-hand seat at Lufthansa

A woman in the cockpit, an idea few if any would have entertained years ago. “A woman has a better chance of becoming world heavweight boxing champion than a Lufthansa captain“ – said a dismissive Captain Alfred Vermaaten, former head of the commercial pilots’ flight training school, reflecting the mindset at the time.

Meantime, a female voice from the cockpit is nothing unusual. It has become part of normal routine at Lufthansa for the past ten years. The woman who breached the once sacrosant male domain was Nicola Lisy. When she took her seat on the right of the cockpit as first officer in 1988 - as Lufthansa’s first female co-pilot – no one imagined that she was also destined to become the first woman captain in Lufthansa’s history. After two years at the Lufthansa Flight Training pilot school and twelve years co-piloting Boeing 737s and Boeing 747s, she moved over to the left seat in the cockpit as Lufthansa’s first woman captain on 31 January 2000, all of ten years ago.

Altogether, 27 female pilots at Lufthansa now hold a captain’s licence. And in the flying business, there is no difference from their male colleagues – either in the rigorous requirements they have to meet in the aptitude test or in their flying skills. To keep the door open allowing women pilots to combine family life with an aviation career, Lufthansa offers “flying mothers“ in the cockpit opportunities of working part-time to fit in with their work/life balance.