WOMEN IN POWER

April 03, 2022

This is a novelty and an excellent trend; women are taking more and more place in the governing bodies of air transport. They had a little trouble penetrating this very macho environment. I still remember the astonishment that a woman became a pilot and even captain at Air Inter. So much so that for years in the announcements on board, only the name of the captain was mentioned, so that one could not know that she was of the so-called weak sex.

Things have changed a lot. Having a woman at the helm has become a commonplace. No one pays attention to it anymore. Very recently I found myself at Marco Polo's annual dinner next to a Moroccan captain at the RAM, who was also an instructor and had more than 15,000 hours of flight to her credit. Even in countries where women still have much to gain in terms of equality, and even then in the most closed environments such as air transport, they are now taking their place. And that's good.?

Their positioning does not stop at their presence in the executive committees, or even in the boards of directors, they are now squarely at the top of the hierarchy.?This is also the case for Air France/KLM. The three main airlines of the Franco-Dutch group: Air France, KLM and Transavia France are for two of them led by women and the third, KLM will be very soon. In addition, the Chair of the Board of Directors of Air France/KLM is also a woman.?

In short, Anne Marie Couderc, the President of Air France/KLM, Anne Rigal the CEO of Air France, Nathalie Stubler the CEO of Transavia France and Marjan Rintel the future CEO of KLM replaced in a short time the men at the head of Franco-Dutch air transport. I note that apart from Anne Marie Couderc who made an important political career before joining Air France/KLM in 2018, they are of the same generation, in their fifties and that apart from Marjan Rintel who made a 5-year foray into the Dutch railways, they have spent their entire career in airlines by the way.?by many very varied positions. This changes us from the parachutes that we have seen in the past and whose results have not always been convincing.

They know well that he will be forgiven less than men. That is the way it is, even if it seems unfair. They must then show more know-how. The companies they run have also adapted well to be run by women, although they still have a majority of male employees in all sectors of activity and first among technical flight attendants. They managed to impose themselves without making any noise, just with great tenacity. It remains only to hope that they will manage to turn the group around and their task will not be easy.

I mentioned the large Franco-Dutch company. Let me now turn to the smallest scheduled airline in the world. It is also French and, although it has only one aircraft, a Beechcraft 350, it is a member of IATA and it is distributed in all the world BSPs and in the ARC for the USA or even in Russia with the TCH, but it is not really topical. To be the smallest, it is probably the best distributed. Well it is led by a woman as well, Sandrine de Saint Sauveur the CEO of the APG Group, and the head of the company Sophie Ballandras is also?female. I also note the excellent health of this small yet global company.

From huge groups to small carriers, women are gradually taking the lead. No one is surprised to see them in the governing bodies of international bodies anymore. Sandrine de Saint Sauveur, for example sits on the Board of the ERA (European Region Airlines Association) also headed by a woman Montserrat Barriga and that of the UATP (Universal Air Travel Plan) the first credit card since it was created in 1936 and which has its headquarters in Washington.

Gone are the days when women were confined to household chores and then menial tasks in companies. And that's fine.