#ThrowbackThursday to service in the sky

This week's #Throwback Thursday is provided by the American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) and its 100th anniversary campaign, highlighting 100 monumental business travel moments that shaped the modern world.  

As air travel increased, driven in large part by business travellers, so did the needs of those in the sky. One intrepid San Francisco nurse and pilot, Ellen Church, did not only recognize this need, she changed the way that airlines served passengers, even to this day.

Despite Church’s training, Steve Stimpson, manager of the San Francisco office of Boeing Air Transport, did not hire her as a pilot. He was, however, intrigued by her suggestion to put nurses on board airplanes to care for passengers. He passed along her idea, and in 1930, Boeing hired Church to recruit nurses for their flights.

Church travelled from San Francisco to Chicago to interview more than 100 nurses over a three-month period. Eventually, seven flight attendants, or “sky girls” as Boeing called them, were chosen along with Church to serve on Boeing’s Pacific lines. The innovation was a resounding success, and other airlines would follow Boeing’s example over the next few years.

Church helped to start a new era in air travel – one that continues today with more than 100,000 flight attendants flying the skies. 

For more of GBT's business travel moments, click here. 

PHOTO: The first eight airline stewardesses.

From left to right: Margaret Arnott, Inez Keller, Cornelia Peterman, Harriet Fry, Jessie Carter & Ellis Crawford. From top: Ellen Church & Alva Johnson