This is your Captain speaking...
 

On my last flight on CX from MNL on Sunday, when I heard the click, tap tap on the intercom, I was expecting the usual deep voice of "Good evening ladies and gentlemen, this is the Captain speaking and my name is ... " ..BUT I was totally surprised to hear, instead the voice of a woman !! An Australian woman at that..

I didn't know CX has a 747 Captain who is a woman ! She was pleasant , professional and well, made me pay attention to what she was saying .. including the "Cabin crew, be seated for takeoff" command. I didn't catch her name though..

The flight also had minimal turbulence.. and wow, even the landing was smooth..

I am totally flabbergasted ! :D

I had a female captain AKL-HKG in December. I saw her when she turned up for duty for gate but forgot to note her ranking at that time... so I pretty much had the same reaction as you when she made her announcement on board!

Welcome to the 1970s.

Actually, although you can correct me if I am wrong, but it was not until the mid 80s that there was the first female 747 pilot.

She didn't necessarily have to be captain. She could've been doing her command traing where the F/O acts as captain. So he/she makes all the PA's, fills out the paperwork, etc. As a passenger you would have no idea that she wasn't the real captain until you see she only has three stripes. (If indeed she was an F/O at the time.) Thats the way we do command training at CX! ;)

I was referring to women as commercial airline pilots in general.

oh i see...as to 747s, i recall it is rather rare. it should not be this rare, however IMO

You have problem with female pilot/captain? ;)

Yep, I had a FO doing his second and final leg for command on my KIX turn in September. The only reason I knew was because he referred to being accompanied on the flight deck that day by Captain So-and-so and I asked the crew whether it was a check ride, to which I was told the FO was completing his command training.

FWIW, CX did not hire its first female pilot until 1996:

http://www-cgi.cnn.com/ASIANOW/asiaw...913/feat7.html

Male ISMs, female Captains.... what has CX come to... :p

There is nothing wrong to have Male ISMs and Female Captains though, as long as they have the capacity to willingness to do their jobs properly. ;)

Had a female captain with a Japanese-sounding name on a recent HKG-ORD flight. No offense to the male pilots, but I actually felt slightly safer. With affirmative action or preferences nowhere near as common in Asia as in the U.S., I suspected she probably had to work twice as hard--meaning, prove she's twice as good--as her male colleagues to reach that level.

I had Captain Candy Wu on one of my flights a couple of weeks ago SIN-HKG. Like the OP I was a little surprised when I heard a nice female voice on the PA but certain it was a pleasant surprise! Not sure who was the pilot flying but the flight was smooth and no issues at all! ^

Why should they not have this capacity?

Every Captain, Second Officer, Engineer and Flight Attendant I have ever flown with wanted to achieve a safe landing as much as I ever did.

ralph