The first woman pilot in the Netherlands in charge of a commercial plane, Cockie van Gessel, is retiring after almost 20 years in the cockpit for Transavia, reports the Volkskrant.

Captain Van Gessel was awarded her commercial pilot’s licence in 1981 when flying was still considered a glamorous job she says. But while this is no longer true today, being a pilot is still a man’s world she says: ‘Only 40 of Transavia’s 500 pilots are women.’