Day of the Girl – Meet three women whose childhood dreams came true in aviation
Aviation attracts professionals from all walks of life, but for some, it’s not only a job, but a childhood dream come true. In celebration of the International Day of the Girl, we introduce three inspiring women at Finnair — Ida, Sandra, and Fuko — who have turned their childhood dream jobs into a reality in the world of aviation.
Ida — Growing up with aviation in her blood
Ida, who nowadays works as a Planning Specialist in Cabin Crew Training Planning, feels like aviation has sneakily found its way to her dreams all the way from kindergarten. This is all thanks to her mom, who had a respectable 40-year-long career in Finnair’s Technical Operations. On top of this, her mother worked as a Cabin Crew Member, and later on as a trainer at Finnair Flight Academy instructing flight mechanics and pilots.
Today, Ida herself works at Finnair Flight Academy, so in a way, the circle seems to have closed. Over her childhood years, her mom’s fascinating stories of aircraft maintenance and the versatile work tasks in the hangars made their way into little Ida’s consciousness, perhaps ultimately leading her to a career in aviation as well.
Aviation has always been present in Ida’s life, thanks to her mom’s career.
“As a young girl, I never associated flying with things like luxury, destinations or even pilots and cabin crew. All I knew was the world of mechanics, from manuals, maintenance and different meters to rumbling motors and the smell of kerosene,” Ida describes. Due to her childhood, she has never seen aviation as an industry only reserved for men either — a plane in the sky was always a representation of mom and her colleagues, many of them women.
Ida’s mom also made her fly alone from a young age. When on board, she would always proudly tell the cabin crew about her mom’s job at the hangar, eyes shining. Even today, she’s proud of her female colleagues in aviation, ranging all the way from pilots to mechanics. She hopes that in the future, even more women would bravely seek a career in aviation, not having to think for a second whether it is something a woman could pursue as a career. “If there’s a will, there’s a way!”, she smiles.
Ida on her observation flight to Geneva.
In her current position, Ida is living her dream. She is proud to be working in training to ensure the safety of our planes and cabin crew — first safety, only then off to the sky! Healthy and safe aviation is her mission in everything she does in her job, and she is proud to be working at Finnair to help realise this goal every day. Ida has previously studied research of working life, where she wrote her master’s thesis about fatigue risk management in the aviation industry. In the upcoming years, she aspires to continue these studies by writing a doctoral thesis on the same subject.
Back in the years after her studies, she also worked in human resources in a hospital for a while, but the longing for aviation was always present. “My dad always says that you should be happy about going to work, and surround yourself with at least neutral, but preferably positive, things,” Ida says. “I’m lucky to say that at Finnair, this is definitely the case. I’m always beaming at work, getting to do something so meaningful — surrounded by other amazing professionals, who all share the same passion for aviation,” she concludes.
Sandra — A versatile journey in the world of aviation
These days, Sandra works as an Operations Flow Supervisor at Finnair’s Operations Control Center. Her days are filled with monitoring and supervising Finnair’s turnaround processes and customer transfers in our Helsinki hub, and she loves coming to work every single day. However, her career in aviation has been a versatile journey, which already took flight in her childhood.
Travelling has always been a big part of Sandra’s life, and internationality found its way to her dream at a young age.
When Sandra was 7 years old, her family moved to the Netherlands. When friends and family visited them from abroad, young Sandra got to visit Amsterdam Schiphol Airport frequently. Initially, she aspired to be a police officer. However, after regularly witnessing the vibrant atmosphere and emotional reunions at the airport, as well as watching flight attendants and gate agents happily doing their jobs in their uniforms, a new dream started to take shape.
After returning to Finland, Sandra completed her degree in tourism and took the brave but necessary steps to pursue her dream of working at an airport. She applied for a position at Helsinki Airport and, after securing the job, left her smaller hometown of Lappeenranta with her horse and belongings to begin her career as an airport security officer — a bit nervous, not knowing what to expect.
She had now reached her dream working environment, but the goal was to get a foot in between the door for other positions while working in airport security. The plan paid off: In the span of 10 years, Sandra has worked as everything from a check-in agent and a gate coordinator to an arrivals hall agent for a ground handling company. After these positions, her career took off to a new level, as she got chosen to be an airline representative for Finnair’s alliance partner, Qatar Airways. During her six years in this position, she gained extensive knowledge and expertise of the aviation industry – all while completing her master’s degree in aviation.
Sandra in her current position as on Ops Flow Supervisor
All of this has led to where Sandra is now. On top of the daily monitoring and supervising of the operations, she is also part of some bigger projects inside Finnair, loves her job and lives for its hectic and always-busy atmosphere. “Sometimes I feel like I should be multiplied to keep up with the pace,” she laughs. “But each time I hear our pilots request for “push and start”, it’s the best feeling. Hearing this means the plane is now all ready and on its way to its destination,” she describes. From experience, she knows that in aviation, you have never truly seen it all — every day is full of new learnings and possibilities, and that is exactly what makes it so worthwhile.
Fuko – One woman, two aviation dreams come true
Fuko is a Finnair Cabin Crew Member, who has also previously worked as a Gate Service Agent. In these two roles, she has realised her childhood career dreams not once, but twice.
When Fuko was in elementary school, a new, international airport was opened to her home city, Osaka. Her family went straight away to marvel at the sight and atmosphere of a big, international airport. Fuko was immediately fascinated by how this new place turned her home city into an international hub, and decided then and there that this is where she wanted to work when she was older. “My dream was clear. I wanted to work as a gate agent at Osaka-Kansai Airport. I then went on to pursue English studies both in high school and university to get closer to my dream,” she describes.
After her studies, all there was left to decide was which airline she would like to work in, and ending up at Finnair was the sum of happy coincidences: In university, Fuko travelled to Europe with her friend, and the duo’s first destination just happened to be Finland, on the wings on Finnair. “All it took was three days in Finland, and I had completely fallen in love with the country: the nature, the views, the people and the atmosphere,” she remembers. Not only did she discover a country to love, but her dream also clarified at once — she now wanted to work as a gate agent for Finnair at Osaka airport.
Fuko in her second dream job, a Finnair Cabin Crew Member.
When she graduated and started her job as a gate agent at Finnair’s handling company, she simultaneously started studying Finnish, as she wanted to have a chance to chat with Finnish passengers and crew. At this point, she had already travelled to Finland seven times and was living her dream in the word of aviation. Over the 12 years of working as a gate agent, Fuko got to witness Finnair flying to Osaka with various aircraft models: an MD-11, an A340, an A330 and an A350. She still loved her job as a gate agent, but gradually, her next dream started to form.
“Finnair’s cabin crew members had always been extremely nice to me, and it made me realise I want to join the team! So, my next dream was to work for Finnair, and not only for Finnair, but in the country where it originates from,” she tells.
In 2017, her chance to realise this dream finally arrived — for the first time, Finnair recruited Japanese cabin crew to work in its home hub Helsinki. “I realised that this is it, this is my call. If I don’t take the chance now, I will never get it again,” she remembers thinking. And here she is now, enjoying her job as a Cabin Crew Member just as much as she enjoyed being a gate agent years back.
“I have learned from experience that when you’ve worked hard to achieve your dream, you just must make it come true. If my story can be an inspiration to anyone out there, that would be an honour,” Fuko concludes.
Dreaming of a career in aviation? Check out Finnair’s current open positions from our career pages.