The Aircraft Interiors Expo (AIX) team sat down with Karyn McAlphin, Design Strategist at SEKISUI KYDEX, as part of our Women in the Aviation series.

This series of interviews aims to shine a spotlight on notable women in the industry and the diverse career opportunities in the sector.

With more than 30 years’ experience in the aviation sector and strong family ties to the sector, Karyn brings passion and a unique understanding of the passenger experience to her role. Read on to find out how she carved her own career path and her views on being a woman in the business.

Karyn, how long have you worked in the aviation industry?

“I’ve worked in the aviation industry since April 1989, when I joined USAir as Manager – Advertising & Sales Promotion.”

How did you get into the industry?

“It was a total fluke but looking back I can see clear ties to how I ended up and stayed in aviation.

My father was a pilot in WWII and later had his own Mooney, the fastest single-engine aircraft at the time, so I grew up with a love for flying as well as “the need for speed”. He owned his own contracting business and the plane was ostensibly for checking job sites, but I always suspected it was more for fun than anything else.

I can remember entire conversations between my parents regarding how he should paint his plane. Fast forward 25 years to my overseeing the new US Airways aircraft livery getting painted on our first A330-300 at Airbus in Toulouse! My dad also liked to take things apart and put them back together, so another of his hobbies was rebuilding wrecked sports cars. I honestly think being exposed to this early on helped me relate to aviation engineers and mechanics later in my career.

“It’s imperative for companies to encourage young women to go into aviation engineering.”

Karyn McAlphin

My father died of a heart attack when I was a senior in high school, so I scrapped my plans to study fashion illustration at Syracuse University to stay closer to my mom. Instead, I went to UCLA and got my bachelor’s degree in Painting/Sculpture/Graphic Arts. At that time, art majors at UCLA had to choose between studying Design or Fine Arts, so I chose the latter because I was good at drawing.

After graduation, I pursued a second BA in Photographic Illustration from Brooks Institute of Photography and ended up getting a job processing film, making title slides and driving a delivery truck before I progressed to shooting and producing multi-image presentations for major clients.

I eventually moved to Washington DC after interviewing for an opening at USAir. They needed someone in the Advertising & Sales Promotion department with a production background to oversee A/V for their marketing conferences and other needs. Although they really liked my qualifications, they needed to post the job internally at the airline, as well as with the DOT, before doing so externally.

The position sounded like my dream job – tying photography, A/V and flying all together, so I literally spent the next three months learning everything I could about USAir and the aviation industry. Later, when I got the job with the airline, I took great pleasure in thinking how much my dad would have loved hearing about everything I did for a living.”

What is it about working in the aviation industry that appeals to you?

“When I started in the marketing department, I was responsible for USAir’s multi-media presentations, among other things. I spent a fair amount of time setting up air-to-air shoots and directing photographers on the ground.

There’s nothing more exciting than pulling zero-Gs in a completely empty plane or running around on the ramp smelling jet fuel while trying to get the required shots as jets and ground service equipment move all around you. What can I say? I’m an airline junkie — once it gets in your blood, it’s impossible to get out!

One of the things I liked best about working for an airline was that every day was different. There was always something new and exciting to work on, and the tangible aspects of my job were really rewarding. My mother and I would fly stand-by together frequently, and I revelled in pointing out all the things on the plane that I had worked on.

Later, while overseeing product development for US Airways, I realised how much I enjoyed “thinking like the customer” and creating solutions to improve the overall experience.”

As a woman, how do you find working in such a male-dominated industry?

“For me, it was never really an issue, because I worked in the marketing department for 25 years. I used to joke that the advertising & promotions department was the “pink ghetto” of the airline industry because so many women worked there.

However, when I began working on aircraft interiors in 1996, I dealt primarily with male engineering teams – both at the airline and with our seat suppliers. Initially, my Tech Ops colleagues thought many of my ideas were crazy, but they came to respect me as they began to understand why certain things were really important for our customers.

Naturally, there were times when I needed to be pragmatic about what would work for our maintenance team, and being collaborative certainly helped gain my colleagues’ support. I really relied upon the engineering team and could not have achieved what I did without their help.”

As a female senior leader, why do you think it’s important for companies to address the gender gap?

“Although there are many females in purchasing supporting Tech Ops teams, there are still relatively few female engineers. I believe it’s imperative for companies to encourage young women to go into aviation engineering for several reasons.

Research has shown that women approach things differently and a more collaborative and productive method might prove useful. In addition, with more women travelling for business, it’s extremely valuable to bring a better understanding of 50% of the flying population to the table. I can’t begin to list how many times I’ve experienced something somewhere that didn’t work for me and thought “this must have been designed by a man!” At AIX last year, I met a young female engineer from one of the major airframe manufacturers who was absolutely brimming with ideas. It was truly exciting to talk to her and realise that she was the future of aviation.”

What do you believe has been the key to your success?

“I think the key to my success has been my ability to understand the innate wants and needs of our customers and convey them to my colleagues in such a way that they buy in to the importance of certain products and services. The teams I’ve participated in and led have required a great deal of collaboration and diplomacy to come up with solutions that ultimately benefit everyone.”

What characteristics do you believe women need to survive in the aviation industry?

“Because aviation is such a male-dominated industry, I think – unfortunately – women still must work harder to be taken seriously. I’m a firm believer in paying your dues, based on my own experiences. Recent research indicates that millennials will not be able to achieve the same quality of life enjoyed by their parents which is distressing, so having a good work ethic and passion for what you do are important characteristics to sustain you through challenging times.

Developing a thick skin and harnessing the ability to tenaciously – but professionally – pursue what you know is right, even when the going gets tough, is also extremely valuable.”

What would you say has been your career highlight to date?

“There are several that come to mind, including overseeing the entire corporate rebranding of USAir to US Airways; introducing the first buy onboard programme in the domestic U.S. and leading a complete uniform redesign following the merger between America West and US Airways.

“There’s nothing more exciting than pulling zero-Gs in a completely empty plane.”

Karyn McAlphin

For the sake of this interview, however, I’ll focus on one: being the launch customer for the reverse herringbone Cirrus seat, which was declared an industry game-changer by the press upon its introduction.”

What do you believe is the biggest challenge facing the aviation industry?

“With the increased attention on climate change, I think it’s imperative that the industry addresses CO2 emissions. Creating an engine capable of running on biofuel to lower emissions is a worthy cause. Boom, the new supersonic aircraft manufacturer, is exploring biofuels and how to make the world dramatically more accessible.

“I grew up with a love for flying.”

Karyn McAlphin

It will be interesting to see if we can eventually lower the carbon footprint by getting to the destination faster, using more earthfriendly fuel.”

What do you believe has been the biggest development in air travel over the past 25 years?

“I think the biggest development in air travel over the past 25 years has been the evolution of lie-flat seats. Passengers can now arrive at their destination feeling more refreshed and relaxed than ever before. I find it fascinating that some carriers are now even putting lie-flat seats on narrow-body, transcon aircraft.”

If you could change one thing in the aviation industry, what would it be?

“I would reverse 9-11. That attack drastically changed the entire industry and my life personally. US Airways was headquartered at Washington National Airport, which was shut down for three months afterwards. Fighter planes patrolled the air space and when flights resumed, air marshals flew in First Class on flights in and out of the U.S. capital. Passengers were not allowed out of their seats 30 minutes prior to landing and TSA officials enforced constantly changing rules to foil would-be terrorists.

US Airways was not able to sustain business under such dire conditions and had to declare bankruptcy. We worked hard to emerge from bankruptcy but came out too soon and went back under a second time.

Ultimately, all of the major U.S. carriers declared bankruptcy because they simply could not continue to make enough money. After two failed attempts to merge with United Airlines, US Airways merged with America West which billed itself as a low cost carrier.

With vastly different corporate cultures, the new company had plenty of issues to address, but succeeded based on its unique new business model, ultimately merging again to create the new American Airlines which had just emerged from bankruptcy.

Just about everyone who worked in the industry following 9/11 had some horror story to tell, and at the airline we quickly learned who our friends were. A dynamic, vital industry was crippled and brought to its knees, forever affecting the way business passengers flew.”

Who has been your biggest advocate/mentor in the workplace and why?

“When US Airways and America West merged, I elected to relocate from the Washington, DC area to Phoenix, AZ, where America West was based. I loved my job and didn’t want to leave the airline. However, the America West management team was calling the shots and my previous director was skilfully forced out by my new director.

He was relatively young with just a few years of airline experience, but it was clear that he had the backing of my new VP. I made a conscious decision to support him by sharing everything I knew about the way US Airways had operated.

He appreciated my efforts to help make him successful in the organisation and over time we became really good friends. Thanks to his support, I worked on many of my most exciting projects while reporting to him. He grew into his role over the years and had some of the best people management skills of anyone I’ve ever worked with.”

About Karyn McAlphin

Karyn has over 18 years of experience in aircraft interior product development and is an accomplished brand management strategist with extensive marketing experience in the airline industry, specifically in cabin design and branding for new aircraft specifications and retrofits. She holds two Bachelor of Arts degrees from UCLA in Fine Arts and from Brooks Institute in Photographic Illustration.

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Geraldine, how long have you worked in the aviation industry?

“I’ve worked in the aviation industry for just over twenty-one years.”

How did you get into the industry?

“My background is in chemistry and when I returned to work as a newly single mother, I wanted a brief change from the fume cupboard. I thought a couple of years learning new skills would be interesting before I returned to science.”

What is it about working in the aviation industry that appeals to you?

“The fact that those two years morphed into more than two decades demonstrates how much I love this industry. The most exciting aspects for me are that things are continually evolving and developing, particularly in the area I’m passionate about – accessibility.

When I first started at Virgin, the word ‘accessibility’ was hardly used and the industry used to talk about disability and ‘handicapped’ lavatories or seats. Thankfully things have evolved since those days and now accessibility is more firmly embedded in the industry and in people’s attitudes.

“The language and attitude in the workplace have improved immensely over the decades.”

Geraldine Lundy

For me, I hugely relish the challenge of producing the best possible outcome for all stakeholders concerned – be they our passengers, employees or the particular company we work for, as well as airports, third party providers, aircraft manufacturers, seat manufacturers, industry bodies and regulators. Sometimes it’s not possible to achieve everything but there is great satisfaction in doing the best you can and striking a suitable compromise.

Also, it’s important to note that life in aviation is never boring. You may have a game plan for your working day or week but it’s always interesting to review what actually happened. Having to adapt on a daily and sometimes hourly basis can be exhausting but makes for an interesting working environment.”

As a woman, how do you find working in such a male-dominated industry?

“I enjoy it and it has changed dramatically over the years, although there are still aspects that could be improved. I love the mix of ideas and opinions you get from working with colleagues of all genders and gender identifications.”

Have you encountered any gender discrimination in your career?

“Yes, at the start of my career I discovered I was doing a comparable job to a male colleague for considerably less remuneration. I took it further internally but wasn’t listened to. I think the people involved initially thought that if they stalled, I wouldn’t pursue the issue.

However, when I feel I am in the right about something I do like to see things through to the end, so I gathered all the supporting evidence and escalated things through the company. Fortunately, it came to the attention of a senior female manager who resolved the situation before I had to take things externally. I know this situation wouldn’t happen today.

Thankfully, the language and attitude in the workplace have improved immensely over the decades. I am not aware now of any of the derogatory comments I and my female colleagues used to hear many years ago.”

As a female senior leader, why do you think it’s important for companies to address the gender gap?

“I believe it is vital for any company or organisation to be truly inclusive. It’s the right thing to do within society but also the right thing to do for your business. If you are truly inclusive (by which I mean attempting to address all gaps – age, gender and gender identity, ethnicity, employees with differing accessibility requirements etc in all areas – pay, attitude, career opportunities, learning opportunities, etc/) then you’ll have a happier workforce with a wider skill set.

If you have more engaged employees your business will tend to thrive (assuming your business model isn’t flawed!).”

What do you believe has been the key to your success?

“I like to make a positive impact and strive to do a good job whatever I take on. I also like to see things through to completion. If I encounter an obstacle, I like to explore whether there is another way to overcome it. I’ll also try to be as polite as possible whatever I’m doing.”

What characteristics do you believe women need to survive in the aviation industry?

“I hope it’s not a case of survival these days. I hope, instead, it’s more a case of opportunities to achieve and flourish. Also, I’m not sure it’s any different to most other industries these days – work hard, be prepared to be flexible and be honest.”

In your opinion, what is the biggest obstacle to women succeeding in the workplace?

“I think for most people, whatever gender or background, the biggest obstacle will be themselves. Firstly, do they know themselves well enough to be in the right job for them for the right reasons? Also, what is their definition of success – is it money, level of management, number of direct reports or job satisfaction, for example? And then, do they have the belief in themselves to pursue whatever they want to do?”

What would you say has been your career highlight to date?

“I’ve been lucky enough to have so many it’s hard to choose! On a customer level, I love the fact that we’ve enabled so many people to travel when others have said no. This has opened the world up for some, and for others, it has given them treasured memories to cherish when their loved ones are no longer alive.

On a company level, to have been chosen to fly the Invictus team to Florida was a great accolade for everyone who works at Virgin Atlantic.

I also recently acted as Master of Ceremonies at the inaugural IATA Global Accessibility Symposium, which was a wonderful personal highlight. It was a great privilege to have been asked to do this and fantastic to see how far the concept of accessible aviation has come.

I feel so proud to have been one of the group of people who have been raising awareness of this around the world so much so that our industry body has now got this firmly on its agenda.”

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

“The best indicator of someone’s future behaviour is their past behaviour.”

What advice would you give to female professionals interested in a career in aviation?

“Just go for it. There is such a huge variety of roles and opportunities out there for the taking. Most companies encourage mobility and you will have the ability to develop your career and find the role that you enjoy most. Oh and remember, airlines are 24/7 365 days a year – you will work hard, so ensure you have a toolkit of resilient support.”

What do you believe is the biggest challenge facing the aviation industry?

“With so many agencies declaring a climate emergency and many public demonstrations against climate change, there is a lot of negative press concerning aviation’s contribution to greenhouse emissions. Many people are choosing not to fly and some governments may consider restricting air travel growth or increasing aviation taxes. Some countries have allegedly experienced a decrease in passenger numbers. It will be interesting to see how this situation develops. At the moment, I’m uncertain of the impact it will have.

Meanwhile, I believe there are many positive steps the industry can take in line with IATA’s policy suggestions for climate change. IATA has outlined a set of ambitious targets to mitigate CO2 emissions from air transport, including an average improvement in fuel efficiency of 1.5% per year to 2020; a cap on net aviation CO2 emissions from 2020; and a reduction in net aviation emissions of 50% b 2050, relative to 2005 levels.

“Life in aviation is never boring.”

Geraldine Lundy

This multi-faceted approach is underpinned by a four-pillar strategy, demonstrating IATA’s commitment to be part of the solution. More information can be found here.

I also think it is important to get the positive messages out regarding what the industry contributes to the world – jobs, tourism, economic growth, medical treatment, time-critical transportation (organs), world trade to name a few.

Broadening this out, I think the industry could do more to champion the benefits it brings and what initiatives they are working on at every level – inclusion, accessibility, sustainability, responsibility. This could mitigate some of the negative attention.”

What do you believe has been the biggest development in air travel over the past 25 years?

“I’m biased but today, more and more people with disabilities have access to air travel in a safer and more comfortable way than they had 25 years ago. This has been facilitated by improvements within the industry and the raft of accessibility legislation that has been introduced in the past 25 years protecting the rights of people with disabilities.”

Who has been your biggest advocate/mentor in the workplace and why?

“A lady called Gilly Golesworthy. Gilly is an independent advisor to the aviation industry focusing on accessibility. She has taught me (and others) over the years to move away from scheduling/managing disabled passengers to assisting/facilitating customers with disabilities. It’s a subtle mind shift which delivers a huge impact in attitude and approaches to what we need to do in this area.”

About Geraldine Lundy

Geraldine Lundy has accumulated more than 20 years experience as part of the Medical Services team at Virgin Atlantic; seven of which she has had the privilege to be the airline’s Passenger Accessibility Manager – championing universal design throughout the passenger experience.

Her role at Virgin had two key foci – to enable a customer with a disability to have a safe and comfortable flight and to ensure that the airline is compliant with all disability-related aviation regulations/legislation.

Passionate about accessibility, in August 2019, she launched the Accessible Travel Consultancy, to provide expert advice to companies and people with disabilities to facilitate and enhance accessible travel across the aviation industry and beyond. Geraldine continues to work with Virgin Atlantic in a consultative role and sits on a variety of industry bodies working to improve access to aviation.

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The Aircraft Interiors Expo (AIX) team sat down with Jutta Abulawi, Professor for Systems Engineering and CAD at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, as part of our  Women in the Aviation series.

This series of interviews aims to shine a spotlight on notable women in the industry and the diverse career opportunities in the sector.

For AIX’s Women in Aviation series, we sat down with Jutta Abulaw,  Professor for Systems Engineering and CAD at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. We spoke about she has encountered and overcome prejudice throughout her career. And she says that her passion, resilience, confidence and empathy have been key to her success.

Here she tells us how she’s done it.

Jutta, How long have you worked in the aviation industry?

“My first job after graduation was in the aviation industry, back in 1988. I started my career with Airbus Operations – then still called Messerschmidt Bölkow Blohm. At that time the wide-body, commercial aircraft family A330/A340 were being developed. I was part of a small team based in Hamburg, and we prepared the documents describing the new aircraft for potential customers. I was responsible for four ATA chapters, so I had a good overview of the aircraft as a whole.

I only worked there for nine months because I soon realised that it would be more interesting to conceive and design technical solutions rather than gathering all the information from various departments and preparing documentation. At that time there were no suitable jobs available at Airbus, so I left to work as a mechatronics system designer with a small company in the special machine industry.

I was sorry to leave the aviation industry because aircraft are fascinating, complex systems with many design constraints, but I was much better paid and had a more interesting job with much more responsibility.

“Aviation has always attracted women because most jobs need brains rather than muscle.”

Jutta Abulawi

After 12 years with the machine tool company, I returned to academia in 2001 to work at the University of Applied Sciences Hamburg – in the Department of Automotive and Aeronautical Engineering. To begin with, I was more involved in projects in automotive engineering and wrote my PhD thesis in cooperation with automotive companies.

When I qualified as a junior professor, I started to teach in both automotive engineering and aeronautical engineering degree programmes. I had never given up my contacts at Airbus, so it was relatively easy for me to establish a good cooperation with the Cabin & Cargo Engineering Department at Airbus for my design classes.

Since I became a full professor in 2013, I have collaborated with Airbus and Lufthansa Technik and several engineering service providers on teaching and research projects. I enjoy these collaborations very much, particularly because they allow me to participate in interesting projects focused on solving challenges in aircraft design, manufacturing and maintenance.”

How did you get into the industry?

“I was fascinated by the complexity of large, commercial aircraft and the enormous number of people involved in their development. I was also keen to work in an international environment since I spoke English and French very well in addition to my mother tongue German.

“The civil aviation industry is working hard to close the gender gap and increase diversity.”

Jutta Abulawi

My decision to become an engineer and to work in the aviation industry was influenced by my father who himself was an electrical engineer. As he worked as a consultant for safety at work in several industries including aviation, he encouraged me to study engineering.”

What is it about working in the aviation industry that appeals to you?

“It is the precision and safety-oriented mindset of everybody involved and the excitement of the complexity of large aircraft and their life-cycle processes.”

As a woman, how do you find working in such a male-dominated industry?

“It was very hard back in the last century. Now it is still not easy, but much better. In the 1980s it was difficult for young women in engineering to find jobs with a lot of responsibility because there were still many prejudices against women in aeronautical engineering. The industry was dominated by male leaders, many of whom were very conservative and didn’t trust women to be able to master technical challenges or solve complex problems.

Fortunately, the situation has changed considerably, and most companies in the aeronautical industry are actively seeking to increase the number of women in engineering because they recognise that diversity in teams is needed to address the challenges of complex, global engineering projects.

However, the majority of engineers are still male and probably will always be. Additionally, many women have a different approach to solving engineering problems as they want to understand designs and systems before they get their hands on them or try them out.

This is often misunderstood as a kind of hesitation or reluctance, particularly when these women compete with males who are happy to take risks and prefer to learn through experience rather than analysis.

(Of course, not all male engineers are like this and there are women who are happy to try things first before analysing/understanding them.)

As children, boys tend to receive more toys which support this investigative, experimental approach to understanding technical subjects. Girls are more often encouraged to read and create beautiful paintings/sculptures, make music, get involved in roleplay or theatre, rather than building technical structures or playing with technical gadgets such as model railways, robots or remote-control cars. How children are raised is reflected in the percentages of male and female first-year students enrolling in STEM.

Programs to encourage girls to pursue a career in the aviation industry have been very successful. For instance, Girls Day, or the many initiatives taken by my university in cooperation with Airbus and Lufthansa Technik.”

Have you encountered any gender discrimination in your career?

“Oh, yes! When I tried to move from the documentation department to the engineering department at Airbus, I found that male graduates who had studied with me, but taken longer to finally graduate, were offered jobs in engineering whereas I was asked why I was not satisfied with a job in documentation which was more “suitable for a girl”.

When my children were small, some of my colleagues could not understand why I did not want to be a housewife. Fortunately, my boss and the CEO at that time had a different mindset and were happy for me to work in the design team.

Later, when I was working in academia and had started my PhD, a department head actually dared to ask me: “What the hell do you, as a woman, want to get a PhD for?” However, my university has a good culture and a policy to encourage women to seek a career in higher education and apply for faculty positions.”

As a female senior leader, why do you think it’s important for companies to address the gender gap?

“Many women have different competencies and preferences. Many of them are complementary to typical male strengths and weaknesses. The right mixture is ideal.

I think that the civil aviation industry is working hard to close the gender gap and increase diversity in teams and is definitely doing a much better job than the automotive industry.

Aviation has always attracted women because most jobs need brains rather than muscle. Even in the very early days, women became pilots and were very successful. Yet it is still rare to find women in management positions. Both Airbus and Lufthansa Technik have good programs for empowering women in leadership.

I believe that it’s important for the industry to continually attract more women to decision-making positions – particularly in commercial aviation where the passenger experience is increasingly important.

Women should be offered more hands-on experience with technical systems and manufacturing processes. Opportunities for hands-on internships are very rare, there should be more positions and women should be particularly encouraged to gain shop floor experience.”

What do you believe has been the key to your success?

“Passion, resilience, confidence and empathy.”

In your opinion, what is the biggest obstacle to women succeeding in the workplace?

“Prejudice: In my first job I was meeting with the chief designer at Airbus in Bremen to discuss the cockpit door design of the A330/A340. When I arrived at his office, he asked me if I wanted to be his secretary!

There were many situations when male bosses or colleagues would consider me unfit for certain technical tasks just because I was a woman – not because I lacked a certain qualification or experience. Fortunately, I always managed to find male supporters, who believed in my analytical and problem-solving skills, my perseverance and my solid technical knowledge.”

What would you say has been your career highlight to date?

“Being appointed full Professor of Systems Engineering in the Department of Automotive and Aeronautical Engineering at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences.”

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

“If you have to set priorities in life and decide between an available career path and private happiness, select the latter and then try to find new career opportunities compatible with private happiness/family life.”

“Most companies in the aeronautical industry are actively seeking to increase the number of women in engineering.”

Jutta Abulawi

What do you believe is the biggest challenge facing the aviation industry?

“Environmental issues: Media focus is prompting people to think about the carbon footprint of how they travel, how aircraft noise affects communities and the pollution caused by non-recyclable waste. I believe future generations are more likely to be sensitive to environmental issues.”

About Jutta Abulawi

Jutta Abulawi is Professor of Systems Engineering and CAD in the Department of Automotive and Aeronautical Engineering at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW Hamburg).

She holds a PhD in mechanical engineering and has worked in the aeronautical and the machine tool industry for 12 years. Jutta teaches engineering design and systems engineering at undergraduate and graduate levels in a project based approach and organizes international excursions and team projects for students.

Her research focuses on the practical application of methodical design and systems engineering approaches, including the use of parametric, reusable CAD models, software-based design assistants for additive manufacturing and systematic sketching and graphical modelling methods. In addition, she is engaged in the scholarship of teaching and learning in higher education.

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