Friday 8th March – An all-female TUI flight including pilots, cabin crew, customer airport representatives, station operation coordinators and ground operations departed London Gatwick bound for Tenerife this morning to celebrate International Women’s Day.
To mark this occasion, a special PA announcement was also read out on the flight, raising awareness of International Women’s Day and wishing TUI’s customers a warm welcome on the special flight.
Cabin Crew Marine Larkin has been working at TUI for 19 years and said she was thrilled to be a part of the special flight: “I love the people I get to work with, the customers I meet and the places I get to see. It was a real honour to represent all women that work at TUI. We really do have some incredible woman of all ages and from many different cultures. To any women considering a career in aviation, I’d say just go for it as it helps build resilience, confidence, and character.”
The London Gatwick flight was one of five all-female crewed TUI flights operating to mark International Woman’s Day including Hannover Airport, Brussels Airport Zaventem, Rotterdam The Hague and Göteborg Landvetter bound for TUI’s warmer holiday destinations of Tenerife, Las Palmas and Gran Canaria.
Dawn Wilson, Chief Operations Officer, TUI Airline said “Today has been a fantastic opportunity to celebrate and recognise the female employees within our airlines. Our crew and operations team go above and beyond to give our customers memorable experiences, and whilst an all-female flight nowadays is more of a regular occurrence, it is the first time we’ve marked the occasion across all our markets and involved our ground-based employees too. I joined TUI as cabin crew in 1988, moving into many senior roles within TUI, and I’ve experienced so many positive changes over those years in particular the progress we’ve made in breaking down gender stereotypes, in traditionally male dominated roles such as pilots, engineers and operations. I am proud that we have always recognised and appreciate women in our organisation and is testament to this that there are now even more opportunities for female colleagues.”
Marco Ciomperlik, Chief Airline Officer, TUI Group said “I would like to say thank you to all our female colleagues who were behind our special flights today and to our entire female workforce for your contributions in making our customers’ holiday dreams a reality every day. Having all our markets involved in the activity has made the day even more memorable and as well as being a celebration for our airlines and people, we hope it will also help inspire and encourage the next generation to pursue a career in aviation one day. We want to attract and retain the very best of talent and are continuously finding new ways to strengthen our diverse and inclusive culture. To support this, we have a number of airline initiatives including our UK&I and Belgium MPL pilot cadet schemes and our Engineering & Maintenance apprenticeship opportunities.”
TUI is also organising an internal live broadcast to celebrate the day. The event will take employees on a journey to different locations and offices across TUI hearing from inspiring female colleagues about their jobs, their roles and views on inclusion and equity. The talks will feature the all-female airline crew from Germany fresh from their International Women’s Day flight, an interview with female engineers, women in tech and one of TUI’s many female hotel managers.
