Air India makes 'first round the world trip with all female crew'

Carrier introduced female only seats earlier this year

The all female crew celebrate their trip (Twitter/San Francisco Airport )

India's national airline claims to have made the first round-the-world trip staffed entirely by women.

An Air India Boeing 777 flew from Delhi to San Francisco over the Pacific Ocean, covering around 9,500 miles (15,300 km), the carrier said. It then made the return trip across the Atlantic.

In addition to female pilots and cabin crew, all ground staff working with the plane - including safety auditors, engineers and air traffic controllers - were women.

Captains Sunita Narula, Kshamta Bajpai, Indira Singh and Gunjan Aggarwal shared piloting duties on the 15.5 hour long flights.

Leading the cabin crew were stewardesses Seema Baberwal and Nishrin Bandulwala.

The airline said the trip was “another feather to Air India's cap in its constant endeavour to encourage women”.

India Air said it has already contacted Guinness Book of World Records to document the flight.

It is not the first initiative the carrier has introduced to promote gender equality.

In January, it announced there would be designated female only seats on all domestic flights for women travelling alone.

The decision came after a spate of sexual harassment reports on board Air India flights.

Staff were also issued with plastic handcuffs to restrain unruly travellers.