Page 4 - STAT-March-2024-for-wesbite

coverstory

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

TURBOCHARGING

AIR CARGO

Women with appropriate representation
in the air cargo workforce and senior
leadership hold the potential to turbocharge
the industry for growth but what it demands
is a fundamental cultural shift.

Libin Chacko Kurian

e have a female Filipino
dispatcher here in Dubai.
She is the most efficient
Wdispatcher we've. She's
absolutely brilliant. She thinks ahead all the
time and is very passionate about women in
operation. So she's become a role model for
other women in the operation.”
These are the words of Steve Allen, chief
executive officer of the air cargo ground
handling company dnata as he spoke about
the importance of identifying role mod-
els for ensuring diversity in the air cargo
industry and encouraging women to join
the workforce. He was addressing a group
of media executives in Dubai on February
27, 2024, before the launch of drones inte-
grated into their cargo operations at Dubai
International Airport (DXB) and Dubai World
Centre (DWC).
“We put forward some real role models as
we've got some amazing ones. We ensure
that there are women on every panel. When
we do recruitment, we ensure we have
female candidates at every final interview
stage to ensure they get a fair shot at the
final interviews. We run workshops with
women in our business, talking about what
it's like to be a woman in dnata, and what
some of the changes that we've had to
make to some of our facilities,” he said.
dnata is a signatory of the International
Air Transport Association's (IATA) 25by2025
which involves a commitment to increase
the number of women in senior positions
2 | MARCH 2024 www.stattimes.com