“Diversity really has nothing to do with safe travel,” a former Federal Aviation Administration safety team representative, Kyle Bailey, told Fox News Digital about the trend of DEI in the airline industry. “It’s basically all a matter of flight time, your credentials, your background, how much flight experience you have and also your training.”
“Regardless of what proposed hiring practices are put into place, the bottom line is … piloting is basically a male occupation. You don’t find little girls when they’re 10 years old saying, ‘Hey, I want to be an airline pilot’ or playing with little model airplanes or flying model airplanes. It’s pretty much a male game, like it or not,” Bailey said.
Major airlines have taken heat for their descent into DEI agendas.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby faced backlash after a resurfaced video showed him boasting about the company’s diversity initiatives, which require higher numbers of women and minority workers. He said the company has committed to ensuring 50% of their graduating pilot classes will be women or people of color, up from 19% in 2023.
“This is messed up,” X owner Elon Musk said in response.