GREENVILLE, Wis. — The pace moves quickly on the ramp outside the terminal at Appleton International Airport.
Dee Eubanks and her team are busy loading baggage, boxes and preparing a Las Vegas bound Airbus A320 for a mid-morning departure.
The goal:
“To get this aircraft out early, which is what we accomplished, and as safely as possible,” Eubanks said. “We just had more hands on deck because we had to have a little extra hands-on for the boxes and everything we had going out today.”
Eubanks is the station manager for Allegiant Air in Appleton. She’s also one of about 220,000 women working in aviation in the United States.
It’s a job she said she loves.
“Oh my goodness, who wouldn’t love to be outside around beautiful aircraft all day?” Eubanks said. “I cannot describe how fortunate I am to be in this position and to be around aircraft and around amazing people. I think once you get into the aviation industry you never leave it. It always pulls you back in.”
According to Women in Aviation Worldwide, females make up about 30% of the non-flying positions in aviation. That includes jobs like mechanics, dispatchers and flight attendants. About 8 percent of pilot jobs are filled by women.
The number of women filling those jobs increased by more thand 15,000 nationwide from 2018 to 2020.
Hollie Foley is a marketing specialist with the airport.
She said about 40% of the county jobs at the facility are filled by women.
“For Allegiant, that’s ground handlers, gate agents and at the counter,” Foley said. “At our FBO where our private planes fly in, fuelers, customer service e agents and all sorts of positions.”
Working at the airport is not something she envisioned just a few years ago,
“Aviation is just a fun, fast-paced industry. Every day is so much different and it’s about getting people to where they need to go,” Foley said. “It’s fun seeing all of our travelers coming because they’re just so excited to get on vacation or wherever they need to go.”
The station manager position is a second career for Eubanks. She encourages other women to pursue aviation careers regardless of where they are in life.
“I always loved flying, looking up, watching planes land, it was always kind of the think we did growing up,” she said. “Now, being here, you get more of an appreciation for what it does take to get an aircraft up in the air and get people to their destination.