Flybe launches FlyShe to get more women working in aviation
Flybe has followed the lead of rival easyJet to launch a programme designed to encourage women to join the aviation business.
Called FlyShe, the initiative is designed to inspire young girls and women to consider roles that are traditionally male-associated.
"Aviation is still very much a male-dominated industry," said Flybe CEO Christine Ourmieres-Widener.
"There are many reasons for this gender imbalance, but the main one is that the pipeline of female talent in engineering and piloting is simply not there."
In addition to launching its new online hub, flyshe.co.uk, Flybe will continue to roll out a number of regional initiatives as part of the programme.
It will visit schools and produce educational materials for schools to host their own sessions, encouraging girls to consider high-trust roles as their future careers.
With the airline industry forecast to double in size by 2035, it is predicted the sector needs 637,000 new pilots to meet global demand.
Independent research on behalf of Flybe comprising 1,778 parents and 1,778 children aged between 6 and 17, revealed a gender bias in the roles to which children currently aspire.
When thinking about future careers, girls are half as likely as boys to aspire to become an aviation engineer and are four times less likely than boys to want to be a pilot. Girls are also almost three times more likely than boys to pursue a career as cabin crew when they grow up.
Flybe said 41% of its workforce is now female, with women in every role from apprenticeship to the boardroom.
"Whilst the majority still comprises cabin crew, there are increasing numbers across all other areas of the business, including pilots and engineers," said Ourmieres-Widener.
"We cannot ignore the fact that the research indicated that nearly one in five girls believe there are jobs they cannot do and I firmly believe that young women cannot be what they cannot see. Through FlyShe, we are committed to showing women they can fly high – whatever it is they want to do.
Ourmieres-Widener began her own working life as an engineer in an airline maintenance department and is now the UK’s only female airline CEO, and one of only a few in the world.
She is also the first of only two women appointed to the governing body of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Flybe has created a video to introduce just some of the women who make up the female workforce at the airline.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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