CAPA: Women wanted!

Happy International Women's Day 2019 - except in airline management. On this day, we make a plea: Why don't women run airlines?

It is one thing to recognise that gender imbalance is in no-one's best interests. But shifting the status quo is more than a little troublesome, especially in an industry which is still embedded in a technical and operational environment.

The range of options, from full-frontal onslaught through to much more subtle trajectories, offers greater hope than in the past. Or does it? Imposed quotas are controversial, informal and formal women's networks are spreading quickly, but if there is one area where unanimity seems likely, it is in the formalisation of mentoring as a means to aiding women to access formerly male-only domains.

We conducted the first of several surveys on women in aviation management roles, back in 2010. Then, there were 15 women airline CEOs around the world. Today, that number has....diminished.

CAPA is constantly searching for some gender diversity at our airline events around the world. If you know a woman in a senior airline role and willing to speak, please, please recommend her to us!