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Malaysia Airlines: Hope to have "many more female captains" in the workforce

At the graduation of 111 cabin crew and pilots at Malaysia Airlines Berhad Academy, the carrier saw its first women pilots take stage - Captain Pearl Wendy Mak, Second Officer Wang Wen Chien and Second Officer Foo Hooi Wen.

Held on 11 August, the graduates were presented with their certificates by Malaysia Airlines group CEO Izham Ismail as well as the airline's senior management team.

Izham commented: "I am very proud that for the first time in Malaysia Airlines, we have three amazing, strong and resilient women as graduating as pilots today. It is my hope that the future of Malaysia Airlines includes many more female captains flying our aircraft and making the country proud."

As part of the training, the 91 cabin crew undertook 82 days of service and safety training whilst the 20 cadet pilots completed 300 days of various training programmes and examinations to earn their license.

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Also at the graduation ceremony, Izham talked about Malaysia Airlines requiring 150 more pilots to current workforce of 2286 cabin crew and 927 pilots in order to stabilise its operations by early 2019.

As spoken to Free Malaysia Today, he added: "Airline bosses need to be 10 years ahead or risk a shortage of pilots."

Photo / Malaysia Airlines

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