Women in aviation: Meet Air New Zealand’s mother-daughter pilots
Sunday, 1 March 2026
Speaking to 24-year-old first officer Alice McIlroy-Foster, you can see the magnitude of the occasion in her eyes.
The young Air New Zealand pilot — one of about 100 female pilots working for the national carrier ‒ recently embarked on an ATR 72 turboprop flight across the country, and on board was her mother, also a pilot, and ATR Captain Bianca Barbarich-Bacher; a family friend and someone who mentored along her way to become an airline pilot.
It followed what McIlroy-Foster called another “full circle moment”, when she and Barbarich-Bacher flew their first commercial flight together to Napier recently.
It’s not every day an all-female crew operates a flight ‒ and when young women are controlling the flight deck, it’s even rarer. Although, not as rare on smaller aircraft and domestic routes as it is on larger jet aircraft flying internationally, says Air New Zealand.
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The connections between these female pilots started many years ago. McIlroy-Foster attended Walsh Memorial Scout Flying School in Matamata with Barbarich-Bacher’s younger brother.
Barbarich-Bacher, who has been flying with Air New Zealand since 2019 and has completed almost 2000 flights, took McIlroy-Foster for her first flight experience nine years ago.
The history they share goes back even longer; both their mothers were captains of Boeing 737 and flew together for many years, and were pregnant at the same time with their youngest children.
Pride
Captain Sarah McIlroy is one of those mothers - she has 41 years’ flying experience and currently flies Boeing 787 Dreamliners, internationally. As The Post observes, she’s sitting in the jumpseat inside the cockpit of flight NZ5021, traversing New Zealand.
McIlroy estimates she has completed 16,000 flights so far in her four decades as a commercial pilot.
Bursting with pride, she tells the Sunday Star-Times that seeing her daughter and Barbarich-Bacher, 33, who she considers like a daughter, fly together in a commercial capacity for the first time made her “teary”.
“Bianca took Alice for her first flight, so that's why today is so super special,” says McIlroy, 62.
She says Barbarich-Bacher’s late mother Captain Ann Barbarich, who died on a flight in 2014 at age 59, would be so proud too.
“Your mother's going to be looking down at you so proudly today,” she told the younger pilot.
McIlroy and McIlroy-Foster are Air New Zealand’s first mother-daughter pilot combination to fly for the airline at the same time. McIlroy is quick to point out she would give that honour to Barbarich and Barbarich-Bacher, for had Barbarich not died five years before her daughter joined the airline, the pair would have been the first.
The trio are telling their story in light of Women in Aviation Week, which begins on Monday.
Barbarich-Bacher’s parents met flying gliders and aviation has been a part of her life for as long as she can remember. Her earliest memory of aviation is playing with her toy Tiger Moth as a child.
She originally joined Air New Zealand in 2012 as an aeronautical engineer working in technical operations and flight operations, later rejoining as a pilot, following on in her mother’s footsteps, who was one of the first few female pilots to fly for the airline.
Barbarich-Bacher remembers her mother as a trailblazer, paving the way for female pilots, and an adventurous soul having completed more than 500 sky dives.
“Even though I never got to fly with my mum at Air New Zealand, all four of us, all our careers overlapped, which is just a really nice thing,” Barbarich-Bacher says of the bond she holds with the McIlroys.
McIlroy-Foster, who has been working for Air New Zealand since June 2024, is full of pride and excitement about her career as an airline pilot. So far she has completed just over 600 flights.
After four years and about 900 hours of flying, her wait to fill a role at Air New Zealand was “luckily” very short after having her interview in December 2023. She had just turned 22.
Qualified pilots with a commercial licence can typically wait upwards of two years to gain enough experience to be eligible to interview for a role at the airline.
McIlroy-Foster recommends a career as a pilot to anyone ‒ as long as they are prepared to undergo a period of ongoing exams and pressure during training. She “shut her life down for two months” in preparation for the two-day job interview with Air New Zealand.
Air New Zealand says it has one of the highest percentages of female pilots in the world, with women making up approximately almost 9% of their total pilot workforce, although the airline did not provide specific numbers.
“As young girls see female pilots, we are becoming more visible, and as a result there are a lot more female pilots in the flight deck,” says Barbarich-Bacher, who, like the McIlroys, is involved in various pilot mentorship programmes, including with the New Zealand Association of Women in Aviation
“We have people like my mum, and Sarah, to thank for that. It's great to see a new generation of female pilots coming through.”
To gain a commercial pilot licence in New Zealand, an individual must have a minimum of 200 hours of flying experience. With the right requirements, you can fly a plane solo in New Zealand from the age of 16.
The most direct pathway to become a pilot involves obtaining a Class 1 medical and training for a Private Pilot Licence, and then completing the Commercial Pilot Licence training programme.
A common pathway is to do the initial training which takes about two years at one of the flying schools in NZ, which results in a commercial pilot rating and about 200-250 hours of flying time. A lot of pilots then pursue instructing to increase their hours while others might take a role with a smaller operator like a skydive company to increase their flying hours. Then once they have reached the hours required, can apply with airlines.
Air New Zealand opened up its inaugural pilot training programme 18 months ago, and selected 30 people between the ages of 18 to 35 to be trained in the United States and undertake an aircraft type rating in Dubai. The first cohort is due back in New Zealand shortly and to begin flying for the airline later this year. The cadetship fast-tracks the pathway to becoming a pilot.
Those accepted into the 14-month programme typically come in with fewer hours’ experience than a traditional pilot joining the airline would, and are trained specifically for a career with Air New Zealand. It received 2000 applications for the programme.