Retired Air Canada Boeing 777 Capt. Judy Cameron has been named to the Order of Canada. Since her retirement in 2015, after five years on the 777, Cameron has been active with various groups mentoring young female pilots and promoting the profession to a new generation. In 2019, Air Canada launched the Captain Judy Cameron Scholarship “with the goal of helping the next generation of women follow in her trailblazing footsteps.”
Cameron was Air Canada’s first female pilot and flew everything from the DC-3 to the 777 in a 40-year career in which she accumulated 23,000 flight hours. She was the first woman to graduate Selkirk College’s (Castlegar, B.C.) aviation program in 1975 and joined Air Canada in 1978 at the age of 23. “Judy has been a trailblazer throughout her entire career, and she continues to be a tremendous ambassador, tireless mentor and inspiration to the next generation of female pilots,” Air Canada said in a statement.