“There’s a saying out there: ‘If you can see it, you can be it,’” said Cheri Rohlfing, a nearly 25-year Delta Air Lines pilot.
And it’s not common to see female pilots out in the world. Only 5.2% of airline pilots are women, according to the Air Line Pilots Association.
Atlanta-based Delta’s rate is 6.3%, the union said; among captains the number drops to 1.5%.
Visual representation was the idea behind Delta’s WING flight — Women Inspiring our Next Generation — 10 years ago.
“When mostly what you see is a male-dominated industry, then young women don’t necessarily think, ‘Oh I should go do that,’” Rohlfing told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
She co-founded the flight in Minneapolis with former Delta employee Beth Poole, inspired by Delta’s DREAM flight geared toward young people of color.
Practically every Delta employee who touches this flight — from maintenance to dispatch, pushback crew to gate agents, pilots and flight attendants — are women. They even try to organize all female Transportation Security Administration agents, Rohlfing said.
Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com
Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com
The invited passengers are young women from local groups with an interest in aviation. This year, the flight took 120 of them to Kennedy Space Center for the day.
Over the last decade the WING flights have shifted around the country, but the purpose remains.
Rohlfing herself said she never would have thought to become a pilot had a high school teacher not expressly advised her to take an aerospace science class: “It just never crossed my mind.”
A 2022 Women in Aviation advisory board report filed to the Federal Aviation Administration found the introduction of women into the aviation industry has been stagnant in nearly every specialty for the last 60 years. Just 2.6% of aviation maintenance technicians are women, for example.
Early exposure to the industry and ongoing engagement are “essential” to combating that, the report says.
Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com
Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com
The reasons behind the gender disparity among airline pilots include decades of hiring from the military, persistent biases around gender roles and high, complex hurdles in pilot training.
Rohlfing confirmed there’s a persistent stigma that it’s hard to be a pilot and raise a family.
“I always tell them, ‘Oh my goodness, yes you can!’” said Rohlfing, who raised three sons with her husband and is now a captain.
Senior captains flying on commercial airlines’ largest aircraft can earn an average $350,000 annually, per a recent analysis by KitDarby.com Aviation Consulting.
Rolfing also noted that senior pilots can get 18 days off at home per month. “Being a pilot is an awesome mom job!”
Dispelling perceptions and helping navigate the confusing training process, Rohlfing said, are why things like the WING flight and mentoring makes a difference.
Five other female pilots were on Friday’s WING flight as chaperones sitting with the young passengers.
Rohlfing gives out her business card to every young woman on board every year. “I just make sure they know that they can reach out to me, even if it’s 10 years down the road.”
At least two young women on the first WING flight are now Delta pilots. Another from last year’s trip has been talking to Rohlfing about how to break into the industry through the Civil Air Patrol.
Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com
Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com
An even wider gender gap among senior pilots — Delta’s female pilots are three times as likely to be first officers than captains — reflects the change that’s slowly coming, Rohlfing said.
The first officer numbers indicate the younger talent coming in.
“We’re going to naturally see those numbers improve as time goes on.”
A Delta spokesperson said new hire pilot classes are 7% female on average — slightly above the companywide rate.
But women represent 30% of pilot applicants and 20% of maintenance technician applicants in its Propel Career Pathway Program.
Back in college, Rohlfing was sometimes the only female in her classrooms.
There were only five or 10 other women in the program “and we didn’t cling together and hang out. We just wanted to fit in and be one of the guys.”
She is now an adjunct professor for that same program and has witnessed the shift.
“There’s so many more women in the program, and they embrace being friends with one another,” she said.
“We love all the guys too … but I’m very happy to see more women in the industry.”
Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com
Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com
AJC Her+Story is a new series in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution highlighting women founders, creators, executives and professionals. It is about building a community. Know someone the AJC should feature in AJC Her+Story? Email us at herstory@ajc.com with your suggestions. Check out all of our AJC Her+Story coverage at AJC.com/herstory.
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