On March 7, Spanish flag carrier Iberia announced it was targeting 40% women in management positions by 2025. Currently, the figure is at 35%, having increased from a mere 18% in 2018. This is part of the airline’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Plan, which was re-launched following the pandemic, and in line with the targets set by Iberia’s owner IAG. The whole workforce of Iberia today is 38% women. The majority of these are cabin crew, while only a minority work in positions of pilots, aeronautical engineers, and aircraft maintenance technicians

María Bello, Director of People Development and Diversity at Iberia, commented,”Companies must be a reflection of our society and be as diverse as possible. Through the new plan, we want to refocus DE&I initiatives and understand how diverse our company is, identify opportunities for improvement and break down barriers. To do this, we want to involve the entire organisation, rely on training and awareness programmes, set objectives, plan actions and review all our processes”.

The plan in its entirety will be executed through three pillars:

Internal awareness and training, including workshops, diversity ambassadors, language monitoring for inclusivity, and the incorporation of diversity into the internal brand values.

Processes related, above all, to professional development, inclusive HR policies, and the Equality Plan, including female talent development and mentoring program, external salary competitiveness study ensuring there is no pay gap, review of HR processes from gender perspective, etc.

External communication actions to attract women to professions such as pilot, engineer, and aircraft technician.

Currently, about 7% of airline CEOs are women. While this is a very low figure, it should also be said that this is, sadly enough, above the global average, which is just 5% – and that the industry has seen a significant increase in female CEOs over the past few years.

Within IAG, in particular, there is one. Lynne Embleton took over the role of Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus’ chief executive in April 2021. Other notable examples include MarjanRintel, who took the reins at KLM in July last year, Annette Mann of Austrian Airlines (since March 2022), GülizÖztürk at Pegasus (May 2022), and several smaller airlines such as RwandAir’s Yvonne Makolo (April 2018) and HK Express’s Mandy Ng (August 2019).

While not having a female CEO, New York-based JetBlue stands out when it comes to women in c-suite positions – Joanna Geraghty as president and chief operating officer, Ursula Hurley is the chief financial officer, Carol Clements is the chief digital and technology officer and Tracy Lawlor the chief strategy and business development officer at the airline.