From cockpits to control towers, more and more women are filling top roles in ...
The gender revolution also comes through the sky. Today it is no longer unusual to see women flying planes or receiving instructions from them to take off or land at major international and domestic airports, although their numbers still remain small. Only 13 percent of air traffic controllers are women and even fewer still-about 5.8 percent are pilots-but the growth has been steady, marking a shift in recent years in a world, aerospace, that has so far been predominantly male.
ENAV, the company in charge of managing civil air traffic in Italy, has also opened its doors to women after its transformation from a civilian to a military body by placing them in the most prestigious posts such as control towers.
There are 16,800 female air traffic controllers in Europe, about 20 percent of the total; in Italy the percentage is around 13 percent. There are currently two tower managers: Laura Delvecchio Plant Chief of the Brindisi Airport Control Tower since 2016 and now head of Italy's first Digital Air Traffic Control Tower, and Maria Naldi who heads the control tower at Verona's Villafranca Airport.
In the Enav tower at Rome's "Leonardo da Vinci" since 2015, 20 percent of the staff on duty are women, due to shift rotations, the tower is often run by only female controllers, seven of whom have the rank of head nurse.
All Italian air traffic controllers trained at ENAV's Training Centre in Forlì, the only training school licensed in Italy to train future air traffic controllers.
Enav's commitment has been recognized by Italy's best employers for Women 2021 ranking, which named it the first utility company for gender parity with 760 female employees (30 percent of the total), half of whom are engaged in operational roles: from the control tower to the weather manager in addition to the newly appointed president Francesca Isgrò.
The International Society of Woman Airline Pilots estimates that the countries with the most female pilots are India with 12.4 percent, Ireland and South Africa with 9.9 percent, followed by Canada with 7 percent and Germany with 6.9 percent. One of the first airlines to have women pilots was Lufthansa, followed by Alitalia, which had 43 women in the cabin in 2018 just before divestment of which 10 were commanders and 33 were first officers.
Last September 20, the first cargo flight to Seoul with only female crew took off from Malpensa Airport. In the cockpit sat commander Paola Gini and first officer Vivien Allais.
In 2013, the former Alitalia celebrated International Women's Rights Day with flights on the Rome-Milan and Milan-Rome routes with all-female crew: captain Barbara Plantilli Lambert, co-pilot Valentina Leone, and 3 flight attendants Giovanna Ruiu, Francesca Anzil, and Matilde Marcelli.
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