Who Is Zoya Aggarwal? Captain Of Air India Flight On World's Longest Route

Zoya Aggarwal, the Air India pilot created history after her she flew AI-176 through the world’s longest route back in January. She recently opened up about pursuing her childhood dream of becoming a pilot in an interview with Humans of Bombay.

Humans of Bombay recently featured Zoya Aggarwal, the first female Air India pilot to fly through the longest route in the world in a story.

Back in January, she created history by commanding an all-woman cockpit crew through the world’s longest route, starting from San Francisco to Bengaluru. Even then her story did not gain much public attention until she recently opened up about her journey of becoming a pilot in an interview with Humans of Bombay.

Aggarwal had dreamt of becoming a pilot ever since she was a child. At the tender age of eight, she had decided to pursue a career in aviation as a pilot. She often spent her time on the terrace of her house looking at planes in the sky with admiration and determination to pursue her dream.

She was hesitant in telling her dream to her family, “In the 90s, growing up as a girl in a lower-middle-class family meant that you weren’t allowed to dream beyond your means.” She told Humans of Bombay.

But as soon as she cleared class 10, Aggarwal came out to her parents with her aspirations. “When I finally told them, Maa started crying, ‘How can you even think like that?’ and Papa said, ‘Pilot training was expensive!’, she said.

Despite such reactions from her parents, she decided not to give up and took Science stream in Class 12 and later Physics for her graduation. She took up an aviation course along with her college for which she paid from the money she had saved.

Aggarwal told in the interview, “For the next three years, from 6 AM to 3.30 PM, I’d attend college and then go to the other end of the city for my aviation course. It’d be 10 PM by the time I got back home to work on my assignments. When I topped college, I went to Papa and asked, ‘Now, will you allow me to pursue my dream?’ Hesitantly, Papa agreed to take a loan to pay for my course. I put my heart and soul into it and excelled.”

Even after this, Zoya had to wait for two years for a job opportunity until there was vacancy for seven pilots in Air India. She competed with 3,000 other people and finally emerged with an offer letter. she cleared all the rounds and became joined Air India as a First Officer. In 2004, Zoya few her first flight to Dubai.

On January 9, 2021, Zoya Aggarwal captained AI-176, the longest commercial flight of Air India or any other Indian airline which was 17 hours long. She received many wishes and congratulations after the completion of her flight from women who were inspired by her.

The post describing her journey crossed thousands of likes with hundreds of comments and shares. Zoya also volunteered to lead rescue operations during the Covid-19 pandemic.