There aren't many female executives; airline industry has even fewer

Global airline chiefs gathering in Sydney this week are mapping out the future of an industry that transports a big chunk of the world’s population. Good luck finding a woman among them.

It’s hard to describe the International Air Transport Association as anything other than a boys’ club, at least at the highest echelon. The board of governors of the aviation industry group, which represents 290 airlines and 82 per cent of global air traffic, yesterday posed for a photo on the eve of its meeting: There was one woman among 26 airline bosses — Christine Ourmières-Widener, CEO of Flybe Group, a small regional carrier in the UK.

The scarcity of women leaders in aviation, which trails other industries, reverberated at the gathering. Ourmières-Widener, the solo woman in the photo, in an interview said IATA can help push the industry to start solving the problem. “Maybe we need to be more creative,” she said, suggesting that “if it’s a priority” the group could help promote mentoring, coaching and setting objectives that would lead to a larger pool of women. This discussion comes as airlines face political, economic and workforce hurdles. Trade spats are clouding the outlook for global commerce, rising fuel prices are eating into profits and a shortage of pilots and technicians threatens to limit opportunities for growth. Some airlines are moving fast to improve workplace diversity. Qantas Airways’s senior management is 40 per cent female, including the heads of the international and frequent-flier loyalty businesses, said CEO Alan Joyce. He said in an interview that such diversity is a “competitive advantage.” 

The industry’s lack of diversity runs deep, according to Goh Choon Phong, chairman of IATA’s board of governors. “It’s not just IATA, I think it’s all of us,” he said at a media conference.