GENEVA – While the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) 25by2025 campaign to address gender balance in civil aviation is gaining traction three months after its launch, with 59 airlines already having signed up, only two African airlines have committed to the initiative, namely Air Botswana and the Angolan airline, TAAG.
Collectively, the 59 airlines that have signed up to the campaign represent just over 30 percent of global air passenger traffic.
The 25by2025 campaign was launched in September this year with participating airlines making a voluntary commitment to increase the number of women in senior positions by either 25 percent against current metrics or to a minimum representation of 25 percent by 2025. The campaign also asks airlines to increase the number of women in under-represented jobs such as pilots and operational staff and to report annually on key diversity metrics.
The IATA initiative has resonated with many airlines with signatories coming from across the globe; Europe has 36 signatories, followed by Asia-Pacific at 10, the Americas at seven and Africa and the Middle East combine for a mere six.
“We hope that by 2020 many more airlines will sign up. The more airlines that sign up to this, the more confident we become,” said IATA’s Director for Learning and Development, Jane Hoskisson, during yesterday’s Global Media Day in Geneva, Switzerland.
Said IATA’s Director General and CEO, Alexandre de Juniac: “Our passengers come from all walks of life, represent different cultures and genders and yet, the industry itself does not represent the diverse world we live in today. We know this needs to change. I welcome the 59 airlines that have committed to 25by2025. It’s an encouraging step forward in this important journey and I look forward to many more joining the campaign.”
The next phase of IATA’s gender diversity campaign intends to focus on collecting data on the key areas signatories have committed to, such as the number of women in senior positions as defined by the airline, the number of women in under-represented areas within the airline and the number of female nominations and appointments to IATA governance groups. The findings of this data will be shared at IATA’s Annual General Meeting and Air Transport Summit in Amsterdam in June 2020.
The 25by2025 campaign came to life during IATA’s Diversity and Inclusion Awards during its last AGM in Korea where three airlines initially signed up, namely Qatar Airways, Lufthansa Group and China Eastern.
“We are just at the beginning of this exciting journey and we will work towards achieving a better gender balance, and our main focus is to do as much as we can by 2025,” Hoskisson concluded.