The Airline Industry’s Glass Ceiling Is Still Sky-High: A Skift Deep Dive
Photo Credit: Even in 2019, airlines have very few women in senior management positions. Skift
Skift Take
Aviation has terrible gender optics, and not just with pilots and engineers. The C-suite is nearly void of women for flimsy, unacceptable reasons. In this deep dive, women on the commercial side of aviation share how it feels to hit the glass ceiling in 2019, and occasionally break through.
Of all the sectors in travel, aviation has one of the most glaring gender gaps. The image of a male pilot and a female flight attendant has long been standard, and the executive ranks don’t look much different.
Very few women occupy airline c-suites, even now, as the Time’s Up movement shines a light on gender inequality in the workplace. Just 3 percent of CEOs in aviation are women, compared to 12 percent in other industries, according to the International Air Transport Association.
“We’re in 2019, and we are not moving as quickly as we should,” said Christine Ourmières-Widener, CEO of UK carrier Flybe and one of the most prominent female airline CEOs today. She added that we should not, and need not, wait another generation or two to achieve gender parity.
The industry’s response is just as lackluster as the numbers themselves. American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, and JetBlue Airways — all of which have male CEOs — all de
