BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN • Three female Royal Brunei Airlines pilots recently flew its plane into Saudi Arabia, the world's only country where women are banned from driving.

The flight by the first all-female flight crew of the airlines was made on Feb 23 to mark Brunei's 32nd National Day, and was recently reported on an Instragram post of the Royal Brunei Airlines. The women flew the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

They were flight Captain Sharifah Czarena, assisted by senior first officers Sariana Nordin and Nadiah Panglima Khashiem.

Capt Czarena trained in Britain and in December 2013 became the first Royal Brunei pilot to fly out of London's Heathrow airport in its flagship Dreamliner, the BBC reported.

She told The Brunei Times in 2012: "Being a pilot, people normally see it as being a male-dominant occupation.

"As a woman, a Bruneian woman, it is such a great achievement.

"It's really showing the younger generation, or the girls especially, that whatever they dream of, they can achieve it."