+VIDEO International Women’s Day, 8 March 2018: Six all-female crews from across the Lufthansa Group including Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Eurowings and Brussels Airlines start their morning flying to Berlin.
The jets were flown from Frankfurt, Munich, Düsseldorf, Vienna, Zurich and Brussels by two female pilots each.
That’s not all, Lufthansa’s prestigious FlyingLab is on flight LH440 from Frankfurt to Houston, under the command of an all-female crew – in the cabin and in the cockpit .
The FlyingLab is the world’s only open innovation platform in the air. It consists of an on-board conference, which every passenger can follow on his or her own personal device and the opportunity to test the latest innovative products and services.
These flights are a clear signal that Lufthansa Group is serious addressing the issue of gender imbalance in aviation.
Dr Bettina Volkens, of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, said, “We have already been able to increase the number of female applicants at our pilot flying school by addressing applicants in a more targeted manner and by making it easier to combine family. 15 percent of our junior pilots are currently female.”
Above: Two Eurowings female pilots, Captain Kirsten Jansen and First Officer Alina Käufer talk about their office – an A320 cockpit. What motivated them to apply as a pilot? Is it harder as a woman in the cockpit than for the male colleagues? What prejudices exist? And how does a woman manage the balancing act between her job above the clouds and her down-to-earth family life? In German with English sub-titles.
And it’s not just in the cockpit. Lufthansa Group also aims to increase the proportion of women in management positions from its current 15 percent. By 2021, the proportion of female executives at first management level is to be increased to 18 percent and at second management level to as much as 24 percent.
“To meet these goals, we are preparing our best female junior executives for their future management responsibilities with our own one-year program,” said Volkens. “At the same time, it is important to me to reduce unconscious bias when filling vacancies.”
Meet Lufthansa Aviation Training at Pilot Careers Live Frankfurt on 17 March 2018
