Vanja Marčeta – the first female captain in Air Serbia 's ATR fleet

16.07.2024 - 11:02 / traveldailynews.com / Vicky Karantzavelou

Vanja Marčeta becomes Air Serbia’s first female captain in the ATR fleet, marking significant progress in gender representation within the airline’s leadership roles.

Thirty-two-year-old Vanja Marčeta is the first female captain in Air Serbia‘s ATR fleet and also the first female pilot to achieve this position within the Serbian national airline. Vanja began her career at Air Serbia in 2016 as a first officer on a Boeing 737-300 aircraft. Since 2022, she has served as the first officer in the ATR fleet, and on 9 July 2024, she attained the position of captain in the ATR fleet. Captain Marčeta performed her first flight in her new role on Sunday, 14 July 2024, on the route between Belgrade and Budapest.

“Being appointed captain is a milestone in the life of every pilot, it’s considered the pinnacle of one’s career and the fulfilment of a lifelong dream. It’s a great honour for me to be a captain of Serbia’s national airline. In my new position, I will continue to perform my job with love, taking care of all aspects of the pilot profession, the aircraft I fly, my colleagues in the crew, as well as the passengers of Air Serbia,” said Vanja Marčeta, the first female pilot who completed the necessary training for achieving the rank of captain within the national airline in its 97-years history.

In Air Serbia’s cockpits, women are increasingly found as captains and first officers. After completing months of training, pilot Neetu Rakić, who previously flew Airbus A320 aircraft, has recently achieved the rank of captain of the wide-body Airbus A330-200. This makes Neetu the first female captain in long-haul operations of Air Serbia.

Vesna Aleksić, who joined Air Serbia at the end of 2016, was the first woman to hold the position of captain on the Airbus A319 and A320 narrow-body aircraft of the Serbian national airline. Today, she serves as the Airbus fleet manager and captain-instructor for line training. In addition to Vanja, Neetu, and Vesna, Air Serbia’s flight crew includes six other women, while the cabin crew numbers over three hundred women.

Out of the total number of employees, women make up as much as 50.69% of Serbia’s national airline. Aviation is constantly working on increasing the number of women. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is implementing the “25 by 2025” project aimed at achieving a representation of women in senior management positions in passenger aviation higher than 25 per cent by 2025. Air Serbia is already among the world leaders in this field, given that more than 48 per cent of management positions in the company are women.

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