Easyjet to recruit more women pilots

Easyjet have doubled their number of female pilots, after a successful recruitment drive aiming to create a gender balance in their workforce.

The budget airline introduced ‘The Amy Johnson Flying Initiative’ in October 2015, with the goal of doubling their female pilots. The company have revealed on Thursday that a year on the objective has been reached, having recruited 33 more women.

According to the company’s figures, a mere 3 percent of commercial pilots globally are female and of these, only 450 have achieved the captain status. Easyjet set up the initiative in order to increase female representation in the field. Chief executive Carolyn McCall commented on the successful recruitment drive:

“I am delighted to be unveiling this specially named aircraft after one of the most accomplished female aviators in history.

“50 years ago almost all professions were dominated by men and over the last five decades there has been significant progress in almost every sector with women entering and attaining senior positions in professions like law, medicine, education, finance and politics.  However, the proportion has not changed for pilots and it is hard to think of another high profile profession where women are so under-represented.

“In light of us achieving our first target we have set a new target of 20% female new entrant cadet pilots by 2020.  This means that we will be recruiting around 50 annually which will really start to change the face of our industry. This is a long term strategy, which we hope will eventually lead to Easyjet recruiting, retaining and developing many more female pilots.”

The initiative was named after Amy Johnson, an Easyjet pilot who was the youngest female aviator to fly solo from Britain to Australia in the 1930s. Other rival British airlines such as British Airways have introduced similar drives in recent years, helping to address the clear gender imbalance within the piloting industry.