For the past year, Jetstar has had a policy in place to aim for an even split between male and female candidates for interviews and shortlisted for jobs. If that cannot be achieved in the event nobody from a specific gender applied or met critical technical and safety qualifications, an explanation must be provided. Jetstar's efforts to increase gender diversity were recognised on Thursday evening, when industry group Aviation/Aerospace Australia named it as the award winner in the Outstanding Strategy for Diversity Category at its 2016 Airspace Awards. Aviation/Aerospace Australia CE Ken McLean said progressive airlines around the world had abandoned the position of having women in the cabin and men in the cockpit. "Incentives and quotas have helped reverse this situation," he said. "The challenge now is to ensure women are well represented in the technical aspects of aviation, such as maintenance, dispatch and piloting." In NSW, less than 1% of aircraft maintenance engineers are female, making them even rarer than female pilots. In Australia, women comprise around 5 to 10% of pilots at the major airlines, varying by carrier.<br/>
unaligned
Investment firm Greybull Capital said it had appointed bankers to examine options for Monarch Airlines, but a sale of the European leisure carrier was not on the cards. Greybull bought Monarch 18 months ago and has led a turnaround of the airline. "In order to review relevant options thoroughly, Monarch has sought the assistance of Deutsche Bank who will look at both inbound and outbound opportunities," a spokesman for Greybull said. "We confirm there is no sale process." Sky News reported on Thursday that Chinese conglomerate HNA Group had opened talks about taking a minority stake in the airline.<br/>
Frontier Airlines, which is positioned as an ultra-low-fare carrier, is expanding its route system at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. The Denver-based carrier is adding non-stop service from Chicago to seven new markets, Charlotte; Kansas City; Nashville; Portland, Oregon; St. Augustine, Florida; Seattle and Minneapolis/St. Paul. Frontier also is re-launching seasonal service starting today to five additional markets from Chicago, including Austin; Philadelphia; Washington D.C. Dulles; Raleigh-Durham; and Trenton, New Jersey. Frontier senior VP of commercial Daniel Shurz, said the carrier is simply responding to customer demand: "Travellers in Chicago have told us that they want more low fare Frontier flights." Chicago Department of Aviation commissioner Ginger Evans believes Frontier's move is a good one too: "New low-fare, nonstop service to popular destinations means great savings and more options for passengers." To increase its route system from Chicago, Frontier opted to drop some flights to existing markets it served from Chicago and reallocate those planes and airport slots for service to new markets.<br/>