Monika: Your announcement on the British Airways message board received around 2,000 replies and 10,000 views in a
week. Do you remember the first response that made you think, “Oh my God, perhaps this is actually going to be
okay”?
Catherine: That was a place where I’d declared open season on comments, but it was just banter. I’d said I owed them
all a beer, and someone came back with a quip about beer letting the side down, to which I replied that I might be
buying them a beer, but they could buy me a cocktail.
Monika: Did your colleagues behave differently toward you after you transitioned, and if so, were there
differences you found surprising?
Catherine: Pilots are different people. Once they got over women in the profession, they tended to treat colleagues
as pilots first and people second. My female pilot colleagues are very collegiate. We have groups like the British
Women Pilots Association, where we support and encourage one another. The guys don’t do much of that. As for the
rest of the crew, the cabin crew, most male pilots, certainly in long-haul operations, find them standoffish. I did.
When I came back, I knew I couldn’t let there be an elephant in the room. I discovered that on my first day back, in
the simulator for my refresher training. A couple of hours into the detail, we were flying along and I called the
cabin crew on the interphone, with the instructor role-playing. We introduce ourselves on the phone, and I said,
“Flight deck here, <old name> speaking.” My two colleagues fell about laughing.
When I asked them why, they said, “Cat. We’ve been sitting here worried about what would happen if we used your old
name inadvertently.” I told them they were a daft pair and that I could tell a slip of the tongue from malice. It
made me think about how to prevent that, and I decided I had to address it at every crew briefing. Once all the
pilots and cabin crew were together, I’d tell them I was transgender and that I had no issues with questions. If
they had questions, I’d try to answer them. And I told them I was senior and old-fashioned, in that the first round
was always on me. I got great turnouts. The questions eventually came out in the bar. I made dozens of good friends
among the cabin crew who I’m in contact with to this day, despite being eight years into retirement.
Monika: You have spoken about a transgender woman pilot who transitioned while working for a British airline in
the late 1980s. Did you know her personally, and if so, what do you remember about her and what happened to her
career?
Catherine: Indeed. She transitioned with a small Welsh airline and was their first woman pilot. They had no female
uniform, so she designed her own. She lasted about six weeks. Not because her management were unhelpful, but because
her colleagues bullied her out. She went into flight instruction and stayed there. I met her as an instructor and we
kept in touch. She never went back to the airlines.
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“I made dozens of good friends win the cabin crew who I’m in contact wwith to this day.” |
Monika: Many of us feel the pressure to “pass” as women, and even after surgeries, society keeps judging us. How
do you personally deal with the outside world’s expectations?
Catherine: I’m a tall woman, 6’. I don’t assume I have ultimate passing privilege, as one factor that makes people
look more closely means a second gets noticed. I’m not flamboyant in my appearance. But I’m not paranoid either. I
don’t assume that people are looking at me, or that the laugh in the distance is directed at me. If I’m in an
elevator and I make eye contact with another woman, I smile. Did you know that women usually smile when they make
eye contact with each other, but men never do? Sometimes, when I smile after making eye contact with another woman,
I can see the process as she realises I’m transgender, but that she has just had normal eye contact and a smile.
Normal. I just take that as a teaching opportunity.
Monika: What are your thoughts on the current situation for transgender women in your country? The last time I was
in London, I walked into the ladies’ restroom and actually found myself wondering,
“Am I still allowed to pee here?”
Catherine: The guidance is currently for service organisations, not individuals. I don’t plan to do anything
differently from how I have for the last 20 years or so.
Monika: Many trans women are writing their memoirs these days. Have you ever thought about writing your own book,
and if so, what would its central message be?
Catherine: I have the hook line. “In 1972, British Airways had a woman pilot, but, at the time, they didn’t know it,
and, to be honest, neither did I.”
Monika: Your last British Airways flight ended with a water salute in Punta Cana. After 45 years in the airline
industry, what did that moment mean to you?
Catherine: Extreme sadness that a wonderful, supremely enjoyable career was coming to a close. Optimism that my
plans to teach would come to pass.
Monika: You have said that retirement was not really retirement. Has anyone actually managed to persuade you to
slow down yet?
Catherine: Plenty of time for that when I’m dead.
Monika: And finally, after a lifetime spent flying aircraft, navigating workplaces, navigating transition and
helping other people find their way, what does “coming home” mean to you now?
Catherine: Home isn’t a place. It’s a state of mind. Being who you are, with no fear or favour, and doing what you
love with the most important people in your life.
Monika: Catherine, thank you so much for sharing your story with me and my readers.
Catherine: Very much my pleasure. Thanks for the invitation.
END OF PART 2
All photos: courtesy of Catherine Burton.
© 2026 - Monika Kowalska
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