Women account for nearly half (47%) of the national
workforce, but only 6% of airline pilots are women.
Aviation Minister, , said:
For every 100 airline pilots, 94 are male. With a
shortage of pilots in the future, the aviation
industry needs to be making the best use of the
talent in this country.
There are already some great industry initiatives,
and ahead of International Women’s Day we are calling
on the aviation industry to pledge action to address
this gap.
International Women’s Day this year is being celebrated
on Friday 8 March 2019, with the theme of
#BalanceforBetter, to drive gender balance across the
world.
There are already a number of positive initiatives
taking place across the industry:
-
helped to
launch the Women in
aviation charter, which commits to build a more
balanced and fair industry for women
- easyJet is on track to achieve its target of
ensuring 20% of its new pilot entrants are female by
2020
- Flybe’s FlyShe campaign raises awareness of gender
stereotypes
- London Stansted Airport is a signatory to the
‘Women in aviation charter’, and has a number of
education programmes including its Aerozone centre
which have helped inspire thousands of young girls in
the last 3 years
Liz Austin, HR Director at London Stansted Airport,
said
Encouraging more girls into aviation-related careers
is something London Stansted fully supports, and we
welcome the government’s drive to increase the number
of women in these roles.
Stansted Airport College was created to build
pipeline of future talent, and works hard to promote
the many exciting opportunities open to girls in
aviation, from engineering to cabin crew. Along with
our Aerozone education centre for younger children,
we’re proud of the part London Stansted is playing in
inspiring the next generation of the aviation
workforce and look forward to seeing an increase in
the representation of women in all sectors.
