Kerry Lynch stepped into the role of editor of the&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;monthly magazine in May 2022 after serving with&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;for eight years. She joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in December 2014 as a senior editor covering Washington and business aviation news. She has also served on Convention News teams, including as editor of&nbsp;HAI Convention News. Lynch previously spent 25 years with Aviation Week. During her time there, she reported for and later steered&nbsp;The Weekly of Business Aviation, oversaw business aviation content on the&nbsp;Aviation Week Intelligence Network, served on the&nbsp;Show News&nbsp;staff, and held roles as the Washington columnist for&nbsp;Business &amp; Commercial Aviation&nbsp;and&nbsp;Overhaul &amp; Maintenance&nbsp;monthly magazines. In 2021 she was honored with the National Business Aviation Association Platinum Wing Award for lifetime achievement in journalism and was the 2004 recipient of the National Air Transportation Association’s Aviation Journalism Excellence Award. She also has been a recipient of an Aerospace Media Award for business aviation (2022) and NBAA Gold Wing Award (2003, 2024). Lynch graduated from The Ohio State University with a bachelor of arts in journalism.

Editor, AIN monthly magazine

Contributor - Middle East

Kerry Lynch

Peter Shaw-Smith

Aviation has long ranked among the bottom of industries in terms of diversity. Over the past several decades, several groups have formed to help reverse this course, but the numbers have remained stubbornly lopsided.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, women represented just 9.2 percent of the total employed pilots and flight engineers in 2022. 2.6 percent were Black, 1.6 percent were Asian, and 9.7 percent were Hispanic or Latino.
A 2021 Aerospace and Defense Workforce Study of end-use manufacturers reported that the number of women holding roles at those companies has steadied at 24 percent, while 6 percent identified as Black and less than 8 percent as Hispanic/Latino.
These numbers have taken a toll on an industry that now is confronted with a labor shortage. When the rebound of Covid was in full force in May 2022, NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen gave a warning to Congress: “We must come together and take bold actions” to address the looming workforce shortage.
To tackle the issue head-on, aviation must become a more diverse industry, Bolen further told the congressional hearing on workforce development. Bolen has said that not only does this increase the pool of available workers, but it brings in a diversity of thought and experiences that can only strengthen the industry.
This sentiment has been widely echoed. Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Illinois), the ranking Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, stressed during a hearing: “Government&nbsp;and industry must work together to break down barriers and ensure careers in the aviation and aerospace industries are available and accessible to all Americans.”
This has been an imperative not only to build the workforce but to build an industry that reflects its communities.
Building that diversity will not happen overnight, industry leaders acknowledge. But, while the statistics aren’t showing notable changes, seeds of encouraging signs (even if anecdotal) are starting to surface. Industry leaders are hopeful that the needle is starting to inch its way from its long-stuck position, despite the long road still ahead.
Recognizing the disparate numbers involving women in aviation positions, Congress in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 created the Women in Aviation Advisory Board (WIAAB) to offer recommendations on concrete steps that could be taken to address the disparity. That board included two dozen women leaders and was chaired by Heather Wilson, the former secretary of the U.S. Air Force and president of the University of Texas at El Paso. In March 2022, the board delivered nearly five dozen recommendations on actions that can be addressed by the FAA, Congress, and industry starting with the youngest ages and carrying through women established in their careers.
“While participation of women in the workforce has increased dramatically over the past four decades, despite all efforts, the percentage of women in the aviation industry hasn’t appreciably changed,” said Wilson in the prelude to the report. “Fewer than 10 percent of licensed pilots are women, and the percentage of women in maintenance fields is in the single digits. Especially in a tight post-pandemic labor market, the aviation industry desperately needs women to choose aviation careers. Attracting and retaining women is critical to the future of the industry.”

Now, said Stephanie Kenyon, who took over as acting CEO of Women in Aviation International in July, the key is seeing these recommendations through. “Much of what our strategy is based on is the [WIAAB] report,” Kenyon said.
Noting that the report looked at barriers holding women back throughout their lifespans, Kenyon said, “That’s where Women in Aviation International comes in—we can act on these recommendations and make a difference.”
For instance, she noted that little girls have long seen little boys or men depicted in books involving airplanes and pilots. “So, it starts there. How are we introducing girls to the fact that they can do all of the same things that boys can in aviation? They can fly planes and they can do everything.”
Women in Aviation International is hoping to show by example through its Girls in Aviation Day, which most recently had nearly 30,000 sign up to participate in the more than 160 events scheduled around the globe. Girls had the opportunity to meet with women in a range of aviation careers while engaging in hands-on activities such as simulator flights. “This is the largest coordinated effort in the world to introduce girls to aviation,” Kenyon noted.
But it is just the beginning. Other efforts surround scholarships to assist with training and education, and more than $15 million has been awarded through the organization since 1995. Continuing on the spectrum, WAI has developed a mentorship program to assist with careers—including the development of an app to appropriately match mentors/mentees. And just this year, the organization launched a leadership professional development course in collaboration with Harvard University. “Every phase needs a boost, and that's how we're going to make a difference,” she said.
WAI also has expanded its international program in a way that “allows us to really become Women in Aviation International,” Kenyon said, noting that the organization has members in 100 countries.
Kenyon acknowledged the official reports that “show that the industry’s growth in women is stagnant.” Women holding ATPs in the U.S. was roughly 4.8 percent of the total in 2022, up from 4.6 percent in 2018, for instance.
But, Kenyon added, “We see changes on a smaller scale.” For one, the WAI membership is increasing, reaching about 16,000, up five-fold from the end of the 1990s, and its conference is drawing about 4,500, compared with 3,200 in 2018. Girls in Aviation Day’s participation nearly doubled this year from last year. “We see signs that we are making a difference,” she said.
And importantly, the partnerships are increasing with more people offering scholarships, nearly $900,000 of which were presented during the 2023 conference this past February in Long Beach, California. Also increasing are collaborations with other organizations seeking to help build a more diverse workforce.

The Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals (OBAP) is one such organization. OBAP has been working toward the goal of the advancement of minorities in all aviation and aerospace careers since 1976. The organization was founded to combat discrimination in the airlines at a time when Black pilots were still mostly discouraged from sharing the cockpits—if they were allowed in at all. In fact, according to Smithsonian Magazine, the total number of Black airline pilots in the mid-1970s was only about 80.
Justin Biassou, governance co-chair on OBAP’s board with a lengthy government and industry aviation background, also noted that despite the prevailing statistics, OBAP has seen growth like WAI—and, in fact, rapid growth of late.
“It's a bit harder to extrapolate [Bureau of Labor Statistics] numbers to actually pinpoint who is a Black aerospace professional,” Biassou said. But looking at OBAP, its membership has grown by a third in the past year alone to top 4,000. And it’s more than double where it was in 2010.
But even more encouraging to Biassou is the growth in partnerships, programs, the millions that are now beginning to pour in to support them, and the net result: the thousands of students and professionals that OBAP is now able to reach.
OBAP has been striving to build a pipeline by having a significant impact early on, he said. The organization is studying this impact from the early stages to where professionals end up.
As with young girls seeing women in key roles, Biassou stressed the importance of children of color seeing people who look like them in aerospace roles. As such, members of OBAP go directly to elementary and middle schools every fall and spring. They are in a variety of roles—from space professionals to ramp agents. “They have the chance to talk about what their story is and how they got to where they are [with students who] are not seeing individuals that look like them in those professions. That has a major impact early on.”
Under that program, OBAP professionals were able to interact with 17,000 students through more than 370 volunteers at 83 participating schools around the world in the fall of 2022.
Beyond sparking that interest, OBAP is looking at fostering the career along the way, he said, saying it is considered one of the largest workforce development organizations in aviation. “The organization is really focused on trying to figure out some of those key skill sets that are going be needed by the workforce overall,” he said.
With that in mind, OBAP has explored training, skill development, and sometimes just exposure, to prepare a diverse workforce. This is throughout aviation, from the aviation and aerospace management ranks to the airline pilot or military personnel looking to transition, Biassou said. “How we do that is very deliberate because as you move through middle school and high school, there are continuing programs that we offer to finally put you into the job of your dreams.”
The programs are numerous. For high school and middle school students, OBAP hosts Aerospace Career Educations (ACE) academies. These are one-week programs held in the summertime that provide students the opportunity to get their “hands-on” industry activities, including flying. An academy in Houston exposes students to space opportunities. OBAP held 48 such academies this year alone, he said, reaching 700 students—"700 students that [we] would have the chance to impact in just one year. And that happens every single summer,” he said.
For those who can’t attend these events in person, OBAP has established six-week virtual Explore Aerospace immersive programs with speakers discussing what it means to hold various roles.
OBAP has also partnered on an introduction to flight training in Olive Branch, Mississippi, and hosts a National Flight Academy filled with activities in Pensacola. This is in addition to the myriad of scholarships, professional development, and other programs.
To accomplish these tasks, OBAP needs a significant amount of resources. This is particularly important, because for OBAP, it is not a matter of interest among the children, but rather a matter of economic opportunities.&nbsp; “A lot of times, it comes to economic access,” Biassou said, adding, “The perception isn’t necessarily ‘if I can't get there, they don't want me,’ but it’s ‘how do I get there?'”
OBAP is trying to tackle that up front. And companies are anxious to broaden and diversify their labor pools. He noted that American Airlines has donated $1.5 million—and United Airlines $1 million—during recent conventions. OBAP's partnerships with entities such as United Aviation are helping to facilitate a career path. Companies overall are “increasing their investment in this space.”
While interest has certainly picked up as the industry looks to expand its pipelines, Biassou said the inflection point for OBAP was also with the George Floyd incident. “The country recognized there was a greater need for diversity,” he said. “I think that really took the lead by pulling together all of the various affinity groups for our conversation about these very things.”
The results of all these efforts are tangible, he added. “Every time we engage with the students, they're excited about it. They just need to know exactly how to turn the door and how to get in.”

While progress is being made, struggles for fair treatment of minority communities continue. The National Gay Pilots Association (NGPA) held its annual convention in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in June. The association chose the location deliberately to send a message, NGPA executive director Justin Ellixson-Andrews explained.
“We went down to South Florida with specific intentions to really defy and, in a sense, stand up against what we feel is hateful rhetoric and legislation targeting our community,” he told AIN in an interview.
Asked if attitudes to aviation’s gay community were softening or hardening, he said that it was a case of mixed results. “What I can say on that is, two steps forward and one step back is still two steps forward,” he said. “The inverse of that, one step forward and five steps back, is still one step forward. As long as anything remains segregated or different, there’s always going to be prejudice. My personal goal is to work myself out of a job but, realistically, that’s not going to happen.”
The NGPA continues to partner with corporate sponsors and industry peers to bring awareness to its part of the industry and to circumstances that impact its members, whether through lifesaving medication, educating on the proper use of pronouns, or advocating for inclusive uniforms. It also advocates for things like healthcare and the same spousal privileges and benefits for same-sex couples as for heterosexual couples. “Those are the things that are in our wheelhouse,” he said.
“We have seen the needle move in the right direction in regard to that. The FAA is a huge machine, and we’re grateful to have their ear, but, as with any large machine, things take time. We’ve seen changes to HIV medication and how that impacts medicals.”
The NGPA is working with regulators to adopt better processes for its trans pilots who are on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and to reduce impacts on their medicals—and therefore their livelihoods. “There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes at both the lead legislative level as well as the corporate level,” he said. “I’m very optimistic. Things are headed in the right direction.”
The NGPA is also doing its own bit to tackle the pilot shortage by organizing what Ellixson-Andrews called an “industry-leading expo” held every year in February in Palm Springs that attracts well over 1,500 attendees from across the industry—primarily pilots and job seekers. This year, the organization has already raised over half a million dollars, allocated mainly to flight training scholarships.
“We have what we feel to be the gold standard of scholarship programs, where we are able to take a holistic look at an applicant and their entire picture, beginning from their high school education to the present day, and take into account factors such as being in a privileged family versus [an applicant] that had to work to contribute to household bills,” he said.
“We really feel that receiving a scholarship from the NGPA is a badge of honor. An NGPA scholarship recipient is the most vetted—with the most demonstrated need—but also the most demonstrated ability for future success. Pairing those two together, we certainly feel like we’re doing our part.”
Ellixson-Andrews said he had developed significant contacts in aviation throughout the U.S. “When the opportunity came to become executive director for NGPA, it was very clearly a dream job and something that I thought would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I still, to this day, even sharing those words, get emotional thinking about it—just the incredible opportunity—because I really owe the NGPA where I am in my own career.”
The process through which he joined Part 135 charter operator JSX in 2018 is also instructive. “When we were going through the recruitment process, I was very clear on who I was, and very comfortable in my current role,” he said. “I had no problem saying I’m an openly gay man. Am I going to be okay to have water-cooler talk and share what I did with my husband [over the weekend], just like I would expect my colleagues to share what they were doing with their significant others?”
He said this elicited what he called the typical HR response. “‘Here we are. We’re great, we’re fantastic,’ touting their marketing page,” he said. “What ultimately swayed me to take that job in an industry that I was very apprehensive to join—and one that I had previously completely written off, based on someone else’s experience—was that they said: ‘We can’t change the whole industry, but we can at least change it for our company. Why don’t you come on board and help us create our own narrative?’”
As a minority, Ellixson-Andrews is hypersensitive to the challenges faced by all minorities. “While I’ll never know the struggles of someone who wears their minority externally, whether it be through the color of their skin or their gender identity, I know what it feels like to be a minority,” he said. “As a former talent acquisition professional, I can say that through the interview process, what that means is everyone receives a fair chance, especially those who may have had circumstances that were more prohibitive than maybe the average person’s.
“That doesn’t mean that they get extra points. If I know that someone very clearly has more behind the curtain than they’ve maybe alluded to, and I know it’s going to help them, being aware as a minority myself, I’m going to make sure that I’m giving that person a fair and equitable shot to show everything—all the pieces of the puzzle. I would hope that other minority organizations can respect that each peer group shares a common struggle and would be welcome to breaking bread with any peer in the minority space.”
Broader organizations have teamed up with these and other associations in hopes of supporting and building on their efforts. NBAA is one such organization. “Our goal at NBAA is for [business aviation] to be an intentional career path, and there is room for everyone. That is really how we are trying to focus: attraction to our industry is just as important as retention,” said Jo Damato, senior v-p of education. Damato said the NBAA’s role today involved developing all those who had the passion to become a pilot.
“As they find themselves getting more senior and being elevated to a leadership position—chief pilot, director of aviation, director of safety—then we can help fill in some of that development as a leader that goes beyond the technical skills required to fly the airplane,” she said. “We are focused on it being an inclusive place for people to want to be—and stay. That’s why it’s important to have this conversation with our current leaders.”
Damato said the NBAA had great partnerships with OBAP and NGPA. “We exhibited in September at the inaugural Latino Pilots Association event in Orlando,” she said. “We’re always at the NGPA; I’m always at Women in Aviation. I’m a card-carrying member since the year 2000 when I learned that they existed. A number of our members are too.
“Whether we identify with those groups or not, a number of us are allies for those groups. We do a lot of work with them. We participate in the inclusion summit that NGPA hosts every year to make sure we can represent business aviation. That’s the big picture of how we’re focused.”

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