Airside Ladies of GACL celebrate women, inspire more excellence

The Ladies of the Airside Operations section of the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) have marked this year’s International Women’s Day with call on industry players to leverage technology as a catalyst for innovation.

The session was themed – DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality” with focus on “the Role of Women in Advancing the Growth of GACL – The case of Airside Operations; Achievements and Challenges”.

Delivering her welcome address, a representative of Airside Ladies group and Airside Operations Officer, Ms Felicia Attipoe, highlighted the many contributions of women within the aviation space and encouraged them to reach out further.

 “We need to be innovative in our work and technology must be the catalyst in this direction”. she said.

She enumerated a few challenges they faced on the job and appealed for Management’s support.

Mr. Charles Hanson Adu, Group Executive, Airports Management Department on his part highlighted the importance of the airside within the aviation architecture and the invaluable contribution of women over the years.

Touching on the theme, the Managing Director of GACL, Mrs. Pamela Djamson-Tetteh indicated that “the celebration aims at making the case for gender equality and globally advocating a change in attitude toward women. It also aims at highlighting the diverse aspects of a woman’s existence in male-dominated roles, including Aircraft Marshalling in the aviation industry”. She further commended the Ladies of the Airside Operations Section of Airports Management Department for taking this bold step to observe this special day.

The Airside Officer’s role is quite unique. It involves overseeing and coordinating airfield operations at an airport, ensuring the safe and efficient operation of aircraft on the airfield and taxiways, including aircraft arrivals, departures, and ground movements, managing the airfield lighting and marking systems to ensure safe and efficient aircraft operations, including setting up cones and barriers as necessary.

Other responsibilities include: overseeing the airfield inspection program and ensuring that all areas of the airfield meet required safety standards and regulatory requirements, coordinating with air traffic control, ground handling agencies, and other airport stakeholders to ensure seamless airfield operations, responding to emergency situations, such as aircraft incidents or airfield closures, and coordinating with emergency services as needed, monitoring weather conditions and providing up-to-date information to airlines and other stakeholders as necessary etc

The International Women’s Day is a global event organized on March 8 every year to celebrate and recognize women’s accomplishments in various disciplines.