EasyJet pledges to hire more female pilots

Budget airline easyJet has upped its target for female pilots after doubling the number of new entrant female pilots following the launch of its Amy Johnson Flying Initiative just over a year ago.

In the year to the end of September 2015, women made up just 6% of easyJet’s new pilot intake and 5% of its total pilot community. The airline now has 164 female pilots in total, 62 of whom are captains, which is around 14% of the world’s total.

EasyJet said the initiative - named after the first female pilot to fly alone from Britain to Australia - was "really successful”, with more than 600 applicants, making the 12% target easy to achieve in a year.

As a result of the initiative’s success, the airline has set itself a more stretching target of ensuring that 20% of new entrant cadet pilots recruited in 2020 are female. Based on current recruitment plans this would mean that easyJet would be recruiting around 50 female pilots a year.

EasyJet also revealed that it has named an aircraft after Amy Johnson.

Chief executive Carolyn McCall said: “I am delighted to be unveiling this specially named aircraft after one of the most accomplished female aviators in history.

“50 years ago almost all professions were dominated by men and over the last five decades there has been significant progress in almost every sector with women entering and attaining senior positions in professions like law, medicine, education, finance and politics. However, the proportion has not changed for pilots and it is hard to think of another high profile profession where women are so under-represented.

“We would like to understand why this is and to do what we can to redress the balance. We have been encouraged by the success of our Amy Johnson initiative since we launched it in October 2015 and the results so far suggest that the demand from women to become pilots is there.”