Published 17:20 IST, October 12th 2019
All-female trip to NASA by airline on International Girls Aviation Day
On the occasion of International Girls in Aviation Day, the Delta airlines celebrated its fifth annual WING Flight "Women Inspiring our Next Generation"
- World News
- 3 min read
On the occasion of International Girls in Aviation Day, an airline celebrated its fifth annual WING Flight "Women Inspiring our Next Generation" to mark gender equality and women's empowerment. The airline took 120 girls aged between 12 to 18 on a flight from Salt Lake City to NASA in Houston. The aviation company reported that they work to close the gender gap in aviation. The girls had a good experience and were happy with the excursion.
WING Flight 2019
The Delta Airlines Wing Flight 2019 was specially planned and constructed for the exclusive women’s ride. Everyone on the flight, right from the pilots, ramp agents who were performing the ground duty, the gate officials and the officials at the tower guiding the aircraft were all women. Delta in its statement said, “Delta's WING Flight originated in 2015 as an effort to diversify a male-dominated industry and expose girls to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) careers at a young age.” This year 600 female students were taken on the sky ride as a part of the Delta program.
Once in a lifetime experience
Beth Poole, General Manager - Pilot Development, who helped start Delta's WING Flight in 2015, said that, “We know representation matters,'' she further added that “We're taking ownership to improve gender diversity by exposing girls at a young age and providing a pipeline so that 10 years from now, they will be the pilots in the Delta cockpit inspiring generations of women who follow." The flight landed in Houston and gave the girls an experience of a lifetime.
After reaching to Houston they explored NASA's Mission Control Center, Building 9, Johnson Space Center and Space Center Houston. One of the girls in the WING Flight shared her experience said, "I never would have thought I would have had this experience”.
Delta wishes to encourage females to be future aviators
Delta has collaborated with several schools that offer the STEM or the aviation programs. Delta feels that this can help diversify the field of aviation for future female aviators, and also giving women an equal chance in a male-dominated career. Delta is competing with the other aviation companies and is considered to be on par. At present, it has deployed approximately 5 percent of pilots who are women. The statement read that, with the WING Flight initiative, Delta wants to increase the number of female pilots.
(with inputs from agencies)
Updated 19:31 IST, October 12th 2019
