More than 100 aviation companies to publish female staff numbers

• More than 100 of the UK’s most influential aviation and aerospace companies pledge to publish figures on the number of women within their workforce
• The Women in Aviation Charter, sees its 100^th member join today – a major milestone since it first launched nine months ago
• Companies joining the charter commit to setting targets to create a more balanced workforce and making their board responsible for its implementation

More than 100 of the UK’s most influential aviation and aerospace companies have agreed to publish figures on the number of female staff members, as part of a commitment to address the gender gap, Aviation Minister Liz Sugg will announce in a speech later today.  

Baroness Sugg’s speech will mark the one hundredth signatory of the Women in Aviation Charter. The Charter sees aviation and aerospace companies pledge to build a more balanced and fair industry for women. Supporting organisations also agree to set targets around creating a more gender-balanced workforce as well as assigning a role to a board member to implement those targets.

AJW Group, which supplies aircraft parts is the 100^th company to sign the charter, following in the footsteps of TUI, Thales and Heathrow Airport. easyJet – one of the first companies to sign – has set a target to ensure 20% of its new pilot entrants are female by 2020. Other signatories of the charter include Flybe, Thomas Cook, Leonardo, Manchester Airport Group, London City Air Group, Babcock, Airbus, Gatwick Airport, BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce. 

Liz Sugg, Aviation Minister, said:

“Currently only 6% of pilots and 10% of aerospace engineers are women, and we need to do all we can to encourage more women into aviation. 

“I’m delighted to welcome the 100^th signatory to the Women in Aviation and Aerospace Charter, which shows real commitment from industry to take action and open up more opportunities for women.”

Katherine Bennett CBE, Co-Chair of the Women in Aviation & Aerospace Charter and Senior Vice President at Airbus, said:

“The Women in Aviation and Aerospace Charter has made great progress since it was launched last July. Seeing so much commitment from the aviation and aerospace industries to work towards gender equality is promising for our future. 

“Today as we celebrate the Charter’s 100^th signatory, we have taken a huge step towards making greater gender diversity in our industries a reality. I hope this is just the start of many great things in our journey towards gender equality in aviation and aerospace.”

As part of the move to encourage more women into aviation and aerospace, other limitations and barriers that women face when working within the industry will be reviewed.

Current work on improving conditions for women include:

• ·       The launch of the Women in Aviation Charter by Aviation Minister, Liz Sugg, who also wrote to the industry on International Women’s Day calling to do more to encourage women into the profession  
• ·       Balpa launching the Baby on Board campaign, calling for enhanced maternity pay packages and leniency in paying back training loans during maternity leave
• ·       Government introducing 30 free hours of childcare for working parents with three and four year-olds and shared parental leave
• ·       Government launching a consultation into extending new mothers’ legal protection against redundancy for up to six months after they return to work