Global airlines say more work needed on gender diversity goals

Despite progress in improving gender diversity in the aviation sector, equality is still a distant goal, figures presented on Tuesday at the IATA annual meeting in Istanbul showed. Aviation is known for its poor record on achieving gender balance, particularly among pilots, but also in technical and engineering roles and in senior leadership. The airline association launched an initiative known as 25by2025 in 2019 to improve diversity following allegations of sexism in the industry, but so far only half of its members have signed up. IATA has been promoting the initiative this year, which aims to increase the number of women in senior positions and under-represented areas by 25%, or to a minimum of 25% by 2025. "Women are still under-represented in aviation, but...we are making progress," IATA head Willie Walsh said. According to this year's figures, there are 28 female CEOs in the 300-strong airline group, while 42% of the staff at the airlines that have signed onto the initiative are women.<br/>