Royal Brunei Airlines' first all-female pilot crew lands plane in Saudi Arabia

Flight comes three years after Captain Surainy became the first female captain of a flag carrier in Southeast Asia

Royal Brunei Airlines' ‘first all-female flight crew’ has made history after successfully landing a Boeing 787 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The women flew the Boeing 787 Dreamliner from Brunei to Jeddah to celebrate Brunei’s National Day, which marks the country’s independence.

Captain Sharifah Czarena Surainy, Senior First Officer Dk Nadiah Pg Khashiem and Senior First Officer Sariana Nordin flew flight BI081 to the Middle Eastern country on February 23.

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The flight came just three years after Captain Sharifa Czarena Surainy became the first female captain of a flag carrier in Southeast Asia. Speaking to The Brunei Times in 2012, she said: “Being a pilot, people normally see it as being a male dominant occupation.”

“As a woman, a Bruneian woman, it is such a great achievement. It’s really showing the younger generation or the girls especially that whatever they dream of, they can achieve it,” said the captain, who completed her initial pilot training at the Cabair Flying School in Cranfield.



The airline's revolutionary voyage highlights restrictions women still face in Saudi Arabia. Although there is no law that prohibits women from driving, it is a rule imposed by conservative Muslim clerics.

In 2015, two women, spent months in jail for defying Saudi Arabia’s ban on female drivers. Loujain al-Hathloul, 25, and Maysa al-Amoudi, 33, had been arrested in December for driving into Saudi Arabia from the United Arab Emirates. In December 2014, Loujain al-Hathloul was detained after she tried to drive into Saudi Arabia from the United Arab Emirates. Maysa al-Amoudi, a friend who turned up to support her, was also detained. Both were released after more than 70 days in custody.



Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East and North Africa director for Human Rights Watch said at the time: “After years of false promises to end its absurd restrictions on women, Saudi authorities are still arresting them for getting behind the wheel.

This article originally appeared on BBC.