From fulfilling her dream of becoming pilot to being a part of Operation Ganga, pilot-influencer Shivani Kalra shares her story

Talking about her childhood, Kalra said she grew up in Gurugram, when it wasn’t a cosmopolitan city with highrises that it is today but just a small town. “I had a very regular upbringing with my mother being a teacher and father working as a general manager in a company. My parents emphasised on education for me and my two brothers and encouraged us to follow our dreams,” she said.

 

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A post shared by Shivani Kalra (@keepem.flying787)

After her Class 12th exams in 2005, she sat down with her parents who discussed her career opportunities. “They still had an essay I wrote in Class 5th or 6th in which I had written about becoming a pilot. The other option I was considering was becoming a news anchor but I chose to go into aviation,” she shared.

She then joined the Delhi Flying Club and said that in her batch of 40-50 students, only two or three were girls. Kalra obtained her commercial pilot license in 2008 but couldn’t land a job for many years in part due to the global recession.

She worked for an event management company and was finally selected by Air India in 2017. In 2018, she started flying for Air India and has not looked back since.

 

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February 28, 2022 was when she operated the Operation Ganga flight. “I was on leave as my younger brother’s wedding was around the corner. However, when I received a call about the Operation Ganga mission, I knew I had to just do it,” she shared. There were five pilots for the mission and she was the only woman. She evacuated 249 passengers from Budapest to New Delhi on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

“It was something I have never experienced. When we made the announcement of coming into Indian airspace, the students erupted with chants of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and ‘Vande Mataram’. After their arduous journey, it felt like a big moment for them to come home safely,” Kalra shared.

Kalra was also involved with the Vande Bharat Mission, which was launched by the government to ferry Indians stranded abroad during Covid-19. “That was a hectic time as we used to fly 13-14 hours and then fly back without a long halt. We were not allowed to even vacate the aircraft. I operated flights from Manila, Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne and even Italy,” she said.

 

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A post shared by Shivani Kalra (@keepem.flying787)

Kalra, who now has 6.93 lakh followers on Instagram, shared that being an influencer comes with its own responsibilities. “When I started my Instagram account, I just wanted to inspire people, especially girls, to follow their dreams. I think parents have this notion that being a pilot means a lot of sacrifices. While it is a challenging job, it doesn’t mean that women pilots can’t look after their families. It is like any other job with amazing perks. It expands your horizon and you get to travel the world,” she said.

Kalra has also opened an aviation academy that provides assistance and training to aspirants. She is also a secretary of Indian Women Pilot Association, which Kalra said aims to increase more women pilots in India. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), 15 per cent of the pilots in the country are women, which is three times the global average of 5 per cent. Kalra said they aim to increase this to 25 per cent by 2025.