International Girls in Aviation Day with Delta Airlines

From nose to tail, the flight was planned and orchestrated exclusively by women…

From Delta Airlines

Delta today celebrated International Girls in Aviation Day with its fifth-annual WING Flight – “Women Inspiring our Next Generation” – carrying 120 girls ages 12-18 from Salt Lake City to NASA in Houston as we work to close the gender gap in aviation.

From nose to tail, the flight was planned and orchestrated exclusively by women – including the pilots flying the plane, ramp agents working on the ground, gate agents boarding the flight and women in the tower guiding the aircraft on its way out.

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’s anniversary makes over 600 female students who have taken to the skies with Delta through the program.

“We know representation matters. At Delta, we believe you have to see it to be it,” said Beth Poole, General Manager – Pilot Development, who helped start Delta’s WING Flight in 2015 and has helped plan the flight ever since. “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.”