Malawi celebrates all-women operated flight: Aviation history for Malawian Airlines

1. CONGRATULATIONS OUR LAIDIES KEEP IT UP.

2. At times focusing on the achievement is better than straying from the headlines. It was about international wemen’s week and the company’s initiative to honour women in society. As for me i applaud the two ladies from the presidency for putting up such a show. I admire the Michelle Obama of Malawi Mr, Mary Chilima for her simple but elegant dressing and her ever beaming face. She would come and make a better First Lady and i would like her to come out of her cacoon.

   1. Mayi amatchena awa Mrs. Chilima alibe size. Ndeonani a Grace Obama chakumbalicho dress yosayenera minister aah. anduna ziberaniko matchenedwe kwa azimayi ngati Madam VP

3. After a long period we hear good news in Malawi.

4. @makiyolo basi. I totally agree with you. There were women pilots before even flying the Kwacha, Boeing 373.

   Whether they came from Nsanje or Chitipa or Hell or Heaven they are Malawian Lady flight commandants. We should be proud of them. PERIOD.

   Let us forgive those who have never flown. They make silly comments.

   One day I saw a woman operating a Catapillar D7. Is that NOT wonderful and worth praise?????

5. I agree she is Yolanda Ndala, unfortunately there is no mapuya puya. If it was these other jobs, the nepotists would have fixed one mapuya. Koma musaiwale mwana wa head anga ku Chichiri Secondary School, a former Kamuzu Academy student was also a female pilot. She flew Air Malawi many years before Air Malawi was liquidated. I will rule Gambia for a billion years.

6. Countrymen, as a father of three daughters, let me congratulate the parents of these three young ladies for the investment they made to enable their girls reach this far. This is great news that our children and sisters can achieve this. As a country we need to celebrate the great achievers among us and I wonder whether government has any plans to enable more girls in the country learn from these two. ‘am talking about girls currently schooling at Mzokoto, Soligin, Hin’hi (in my Ntchisi district), Namitete, etc! With the increasing level of poverty, more and more girls are dropping out of school out of desperation. The tendency among those of us who work in the NGO sector is to tell the world that our culture is bad and it explains why large number of girls are dropping out. While this may be true in some respects, Malawians need to accept that the root cause of school drop out among the girls is rising levels of poverty at household level. Parents marry off or look the other way when their girl-child decides to get married because they think that they are better off without one more mouth on their meager budget. Being someone who has been in the youth-related sectors in the past two decades, I can say without equivocation or fear of contradiction that unless our economy begins to tick let’s forget about girl or women advancement in this country. Bad economics will always result in untold suffering among women and girls and the girl-child suffers the greatest burden. The effects of cashgate and various forms of economic abuse that this country has suffered, and continues to suffer, impact on the girl-child and the poor women more than any other group in our country. School drop out, gender-based violence, early pregnancies and early marriages are three major causes of the biggest threat that Malawi will have to face in next 50 years – population EXPLOSION. It is girls and women who are not empowered that bear children without a plan and yet these are people who also don’t have access to the most basic economic organ – LAND.

   So, here are my questions: When shall we, as a nation, begin to deal with corruption and various forms of economic abuses facing our country today? When shall we, citizens, begin to speak up against corruption is our zones of influence? When shall we begin to put leaders of integrity in key positions of our economy so that the taxpayer money can begin to trickle down to the majority of our girls and women?

   Coming to the question of whether this is the first time for Malawi to have women pilots as some people want us to believe, my answer is that this is not true. The problem is that we, Malawians, don’t have a sense of history. We don’t bother to find out from those who have gone before us so that they tell us where things have once been in this country. I, personally, have been on women-managed flights before. Maybe what is new about this flight is that relatively young women and everybody else was a woman (not so?). That may be new. But, historically, women have always been part of the aviation sector in this country. Of course, it is important to celebrate the achievement of women, but our history is also critical.

   Thirdly, like someone has also indicated, this is indeed time for us to begin to think about the state of our aviation sector in the country. Do we, Malawians, remember that this used to be a growing sector? When I was growing up in the 70s and 80s Malawi used to have airports in almost half of the 24 districts that Malawi used to have. Kasungu alone used to have Kasungu Airport (in Yangalani Village), Mpasadzi, Tsemembe and Linyangwa airports. In those years CDC (which later became KFCTA used to have its own plane that was used by Management and fight fire in the huge exotic forests that the company was raising! Nkhotakota, Mangochi, Mzuzu, Karonga, Mchalo, Mzimba (including Vipya/Chikangawa Forest) used to have airports (and there was a fire-fighting plane at the now depleted Chikangawa Forest!). If my memory does not betray me, there was a time when even the British Airways used to fly into Lilongwe! What has killed the once vibrant aviation sector? Corruption? Nepotism? Theft? Bad economics? Lack of vision and ambition as a country? Or all of the above??? I was once shocked when unqualified people (including chiefs) started to sit on the Air Malawi Board! Could this be one of the causes of our downfall?

   I personally feel that, as a country, we need to pause and think and re-plan. This is an important sector that brings pride to any country. Air Malawi was a pride to us as Malawians. Malawian Airlines can also reach that level in our own life-time and more girls from Chinthembwe, Makanda and Mwancheka villages can have a chance to “drive” these vehicles in the sky!

   Cheers! and congrats to our women achievers!

   Kent Y.G. Mphepo – Blantyre.

   1. @ Kent well said. I cannot add more.

7. @ Bare Zambiri, Veronica Foy is actualy a Captain on widebody aircrafts (eg Boeing 777) for an airline in Vietnam. She gave an interview to one of the local media outlets last year

8. Congratulations Yolanda and your Friend. You have made the Grant Family proud. Timakunyadilani

9. Yolanda is not the first Malawian woman captain. There is a lady who used to fly Air Malawi as a Captain on the ATR and Donier aircrafts. She is now flying wide body aircraft (B777) as Captain in Vietnam. Check your facts!

10. I can agree with Bare Zimbiri. Malawi has gone down most in everything apart from corruption. But well done our women.

11. Ladies, this is very colourful. I will sell this idea to my daughter. God bless you, your parents and everybody who supported your career.

12. Pali chonyadira apa?

    What a cursed nation!

13. May you continue to prosper ladies of vision

14. Good job ladies, wishing you all the best!

15. wow its exciting! the key is to have faith that you can do it regardless of the inner small voice. Takunyadirani

16. WE NEED MORE WOMEN PILOTS SINCE MY AIR TRANSPORT BUSINESS IN THE PIPELINE.

17. Yolanda – Kaunda
    Lusekero – Mwenifumbo

    ======= North May be!!!!!

    No wonder north is the blessed Israel, everything tangible in this country starts with the northerners. No matter what, God blessed thse people

    1. Yolanda Ndala…point of correction and not from the North

    2. Yolanda is a Ndala. She is married to Kaunda you bigot.

    3. Yolanda Kaunda is nee Ndala from Zomba. She is not from the north!! Lusekelo is from the north yes. Another one before these ladies is Felistas Mkandawire nee Matengo from Machinga if I’m not mistaken. Check your facts. Maina a north are for their husbands except for Mwenifumbo. Let’s be Malawians first za ma tribes izi won’t help us at all. Congrats to our Malawian female achievers!!!!!

       1. Koma ndiyedi tu Mtumbuka walemba za mitundu yo ndichitsiru

    4. ZA ma tribalism is tazitayeni….people are not blessed because of location. By the way a captain siakumpoto anangokwatiwako. Let’s celebrate our women regardless of where they are coming from they are all Malawians

    5. @ Mutila, Yolanda ndi nee Mdala married to Kaunda a tumbuka

18. Proud of you women of Africa, Malawi

19. The correct statement should read:”Yolanda is Malawian Airlines first female Captain”. Otherwise, as a country, Malawi had Veronica Trataris (Foy), as the first female Captain in the 1990s. All female flights were operated back then with Foy as Captain and Felistus Matengo (Mkandawire) as first officer. I stand to be corrected, but, it is most likely that Veronica even achieved command of the Boeing 737-300 and Felistus was senior first officer. While we celebrate the milestone that Malawi has attained today, let us pause for a moment and consider how far the aviation industry of Malawi has fallen from its peak in the 1990s.

    1. i agree with you, i wonder why this reporter only talks about these current women forgetting those who set up a good example and raid a better foundation that women can fly planes. Malawi Aviation has fallen apart, we used to have planes here in Malawi but now hhhhhh, everything is gone.

       1. Reporter wotsalira uyu. kumafufuza musanalember nkhani. Kunali a Matengo amkayendetsa ndege.

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