Women’s work - Air New Zealand champions women in aviation.
I found this article in the May Kia Ora magazine. It warmed the cockles of my heart to read that Air New Zealand is proud that 7.68% of their pilot complement are women. This is 50% more than the global average and I look forward to seeing when the female contingent exceeds 10%!
Air New Zealand were happy for me to include the link to the article here and I have also transcribed it to make it easier reading. Here’s the original link to the Kia Ora article. Thanks Air New Zealand - https://7a3c073e.flowpaper.com/KiaOraMay2023/#section=27
Air New Zealand First Officer Penny Armstrong was on the flight deck and part of an all-women crew flying on International Women’s Day.
WĀHINE WERE FLYING high during this year’s Women of Aviation Week, with Air New Zealand joining as champions for change, diversity and inclusion by operating flights with all-women crews. The annual awareness-raising week is held in March to inspire girls and women to pursue careers in the industry, while marking the anniversary of Frenchwoman Raymonde de Laroche becoming the first female to receive a pilot’s licence on March 8, 1910. That date also being International Women’s Day, Air New Zealand jet flights from Auckland had all female pilot crew.
Eighteen percent of Air New Zealand’s engineers are women, as are eight percent of its maintenance crew and 7.68 percent of its pilots. One of those is Second Officer B787 Hannah Mallard, an Air New Zealand pilot on a mission to redress the numbers.
As a child, Mallard was sold on becoming a pilot when she grew up. Realising that dream after attending Walsh Memorial Scout Flying School in Matamata as a teen, she now loves more aspects of her role than she can count.
“It’s an awesome job in terms of the variety of hands-on skills as well as the cognitive challenge of learning about so many things, including the technological aspects of the aircraft, aerodynamics, meteorology and navigation. There are lots of opportunities to develop and it’s awesome to work with everyone who makes a flight possible. Being able to fly to amazing destinations around the world and experience them on my layovers is definitely a perk, shift work means we get to have quality time at home with our families in between and, of course, we get the best views from the ‘office’ in the world.”
Mallard believes one of the biggest challenges for women in aviation is overcoming the perception that it’s a job for men. To any young women considering their own high-flying careers, she says, “Go for it! It’s a great job. There are many ways to achieve it, and if you can stick with it, you’ll get there. Focusing on English, maths and physics at high school will give you a head start. There are some awesome courses for teenagers, such as the Walsh, and the RNZAF runs a great programme for Year 13 girls called School to Skies. They’re both great to give you a taster and make some awesome friends who have similar dreams.”
“We’re keen to encourage girls to consider and pursue aviation as a career.”
Mallard has also been working with WINGS (Women Inspiring the Next Generation), Air New Zealand’s network of female pilots who are passionate about building a better future by creating opportunities for female recruits and an inspiring, inclusive and supportive culture that fosters equality.
“We’re keen to encourage girls to consider and pursue aviation as a career, so we do a lot of school visits, airshows, and career and pilot evenings,” she says. “We’ve presented to and hosted organisations like Diversity Works, and mentor girls and women at various stages of their training and careers. Many of our mentees have visited Air New Zealand to see how the operation runs and have flight-deck and flight-simulator experiences.”
For women already working for Air New Zealand, WINGS aims to help make it the best it can be. “We’ve worked with the company to improve parental policies and with union partners to create rostering provisions for new parents, and advocate for continual improvements to the flexible flying options across our fleets,” says Mallard. “Development is something we’ve encouraged for our pilots as well, so we can have more females in leadership positions, including trainers and union reps, and in pilot management and recruitment roles. Women are now visible more in content produced by Air New Zealand too.”
