94 years ago, in 1930, Graciela Cooper Godoy was the first woman to receive her license to fly in Chile. That is why every July 26th our country celebrates women who practice this profession. Although there has been progress, worldwide it is estimated that only 5% of pilots in the world are women, according to IATA. To encourage greater female participation in this field, SKY Airline has led various initiatives and the latest of them wanted to inspire the new generations of girls.
With the support of the Ingeniosas Foundation, a group of 20 girls from the Sagrada Familia 585 School in Quinta Normal arrived at the SKY Maintenance Base at the Santiago Airport. The idea was for them to get to know an airplane, the workshops, and a pilot of the airline, in order to inspire them and break down stereotypes surrounding the airline industry.
“We want to bring communities closer, in this case the new generations of girls, so that they know what we do at SKY, so that they see that there are no limits when it comes to choosing to be pilots. This initiative adds to others that we have been taking over time and we have seen how female participation in our airline is on the rise,” says Mayra Kohler, Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Manager at SKY.
If at the beginning of 2024, 10% of SKY pilots were women, by the end of June that figure had reached 13.5%, more than doubling the global average of 5% female participation. “This has to do with the fact that more women are daring to study this career, breaking down the prejudices that existed in the past that being a pilot was a profession only for men. We can all do it,” says Natalia Ambel, a SKY pilot for 6 years.
In recent years, the airline has carried out various campaigns and activities to get more women interested in aviation, such as its “Mujer, Atrévete a Volar” program, but this time, SKY wanted to target even younger groups.
“This activity that we did in partnership with SKY allows them to show girls that if other women could be pilots, we all can. It is very important to be able to reach children, because that is where we can change the perception about the prejudices or stereotypes that exist about careers related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM),” emphasizes Gabriela Castillo, executive director of Fundación Ingeniosas.
It is worth remembering that, in March of this year, SKY signed a voluntary commitment with the Ministry of Women and Gender Equality to maintain a total staff of female pilots above the world average and increase the number of hires by 10% by 2024, 15% by 2025 and a further 20% in 2026. In addition, the airline is committed to the IATA 25by2025 initiative, which seeks to increase the number of women in high-level jobs and in underrepresented areas such as pilots and operations.
Fuente: SKY Airline.