South Africa-Based Fly Blue Crane Is The First Airline Started By A Black Woman

Hello broken gender and race barrier! Remember the name Sizakele Mzimela because she has not only made history, but has paved the way for many other women in the aviation industry to follow in her wake. Sizakele is the CEO and founder of Fly Blue Crane, a South Africa-based airline which is now embarking on International jaunts and launched in September 2015.

Sizakele is certainly comfortable with being a barrier-breaker, as she is a former CEO of South African Airways and was the first woman named on the board of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in its 71-year history. The association represents 117 countries, and its member airlines account for 83 percent of air traffic.

She started her aviation career 20 years ago while working for a South African oil company whose offices were opposite SAA’s. She heard SAA were looking for an analyst and applied successfully, but not without some hurdles.

In an interview with Runway Girl Network, Sizakele talks about the typical type of barriers she faced being a woman, and a woman of color, in a male-dominated industry.

“The people interviewing me were obnoxious, asking me the same questions over and over again, trying to trip me up. I walked out of that interview knowing I wanted to work in aviation because these pale white men felt this young African women couldn’t do it. And the most arrogant man on that panel? In a few years, that man was reporting to me,” she said.

But her own merit was enough vengeance for her, as she worked her way up the ranks and over the course of her career with SAA was a manager in different divisions, including the Americas, the Middle East and Africa.

“The biggest joke is that I wasn’t able to stay in one position for 12 months. I kept getting promoted to the next level. I looked after alliances and then became general manager of Africa and the Middle East. I was then promoted and became SAA’s first black executive vice president. When I was promoted to EVP, I initially looked after global operations on the airport side. Within six months, I was EVP of commercial sales. I then left SAA to become the head of SA Express. I came back to SAA as CEO, then left to start my own airline,” she said.

If by now the phrase “Like A Boss” has not come to mind, go back and read that last paragraph again…

Sizakele says one of her biggest achievements throughout her career at SAA was helping build a proper relationship between the pilot’s union and the cabin crew, allowing everyone to be on the same page to further the success of the company. It was one of the things that made her a great candidate to be nominated for the IATA board position. Despite all of this success, the thought of creating more jobs for people and breaking more barriers in the industry kept calling her, which led Sizakele to eventually launch her own airline.

And she chose to rely on her strong background and ability to forge lasting professional relationships in the industry as her ticket to raising money.

“If I was a white male, I’m sure I’d have people flooding me with money because they wanted to support me. But I’m fortunate because I have my own network, one that is interacting with people who want to connect with me,” she said.