When Nivedita Bhasin first took command of a commercial jet at the age of 26 three and a half decades ago, the idea of a woman in the cockpit made many passengers uneasy. Now, her journey has become a blueprint for women seeking a place in India’s skies. “Family support and awareness about the sheer range of careers in aviation can change the destiny of thousands of girls,” Ms. Bhasin said during an exclusive interview with The Hindu on the sidelines of Wings India 2026 on Friday (January 30, 2026).
Long before gender diversity became a talking point at industry conferences, she had already made her way through the cockpit door. In 1990, she became the world’s youngest woman to command a commercial jet, taking charge of a Boeing 737 in an era when aviation was overwhelmingly male.
NIVEDITA BHASIN. File
Her dream took shape early in childhood in Delhi. “When we were asked to write an essay about what we wanted to become, I wrote I wanted to be a pilot. Many girls in the class laughed at me,” she recalled.
By 16, she had obtained her flying licence. “I got my driving licence after my flying licence,” she laughed. As a teenager, her days stretched from school in Chanakyapuri to a nearby flying club she passed by every day. Her mother would pack two tiffins, one for the school lunch break and another for the 2-kilometre long walk from the bus stop to the airfield where she learnt gliding.
Flying training in Patna followed, setting her on a steady climb through aircraft types and responsibilities, from the Fokker F27 to the Boeing 737, Airbus A300, Airbus A330 and eventually the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. She would go on to log more than 22,000 hours over a 37-year flying career, become part of the world’s first all-women crew commercial flight in 1985, and later serve as Air India’s first female Chief of Flight Safety.
Nivedita Bhasin. File
The skies she entered in the 1980s, however, were far from welcoming. “Going to a flying school meant breaking into a territory and many men did not take it well. There was a lot of resistance. They would bully me, say discouraging things, but nothing really slowed me down,” she said.
Some remarks were openly dismissive. “This is not the place for you,” men would tell her, while others joked about “another empty kitchen”. Even after she began flying commercially, scepticism lingered. Passengers would sometimes hesitate on seeing a woman in the cockpit.
That reaction, she said, has since transformed. “Now I see passengers in relief and saying they are sure the flight will be smooth if a woman is flying. That’s the change we have made.”
Flying itself was more demanding in those years. In an analog cockpit with the rudimentary weather radar, she navigated following rivers and radio beacons while operating into remote north-eastern airfields that saw perhaps one flight a week. She remembers routes along the Brahmaputra where aircraft even carried vegetables to isolated towns.
Nivedita Bhasin after flying a return flight from Kolkata to New Delhi, on March 07, 2018, when she was Air India’s Captain
| Photo Credit:
KRISHNAN VV
On the ground too, the novelty of women in uniform created awkward moments. “Seeing women in uniform was rare and unheard of,” she said, recalling how she was sometimes stopped from entering women’s washrooms because people assumed they were men. That generation, she added, had to “find our feet literally” so that the next would not have to.
Progress for women at work was also won the hard way. “Back during my first pregnancy in 1987, there was no maternity policy. I was flying until the fourth month before the conversation started. We had to find out what the policies were in other international airlines,” she said, recalling how those early efforts helped start a wider shift. Modern airlines now offer more flexible arrangements that allow women pilots to balance flying and family life.
Through every obstacle ran a constant thread of family support. When she first voiced her ambition in the late 1970s, her father immediately enrolled her in a gliding school despite financial strain. Today, aviation runs in the family: her son is an Air India pilot, while her daughter bettered her own record by becoming a commander at 25 with IndiGo.
Women today account for about 15% of India’s pilots, a sharp rise from the handful who flew when she began. Yet for Ms. Bhasin, true inclusion must go beyond the cockpit. “Women don’t know what all options exist for them. There is no awareness and our job is to spread that awareness,” she said.
Through her work with the International Society of Women Airline Pilots and The Ninety-Nines, she is reaching out to young women and their families, highlighting careers in various aviation domains, while also pushing for scholarships to make entry easier.
Published – January 30, 2026 04:07 pm IST
