Airline perspective: Diversity and talent scarcity

This podcast is one I’ve been working on for months. Jane Hoskisson, Director of Talent, Learning, and Diversity for IATA (the world’s advocacy, support, and training provider for 300+ airlines). Jane is joined by Alina Aronberga, HR Aviation Leader (former SVP of HR for Air Baltic), who partnered with IATA and others in GAAST, The Global Aviation and Aerospace Skills Taskforce. (You will hear Jane and Alina discuss GAAST in the podcast.)

Jane and Alina discuss many things, including the rapid growth in airlines, the critical need for talent, skills, and diversity, and their comprehensive Future of Work Aerospace Industry Skills Matrix.

This industry skills model, which defines skills at four competency levels, details the industry-wide skills for the major job roles in an airline. It also describes the way these skills will change with AI. And this entire model, which integrates detailed product and operation plans from Boeing, Airbus, and many airlines and service providers, was developed with Galileo®

As Jane explains in the discussion, Galileo was the thought partner, AI consultant, and analyst that directly helped IATA develop this model.

This means that any airline, airline provider, or aerospace manufacturer, can get the model from IATA and GAAST, and use Galileo to understand how these new roles and skills impact their operations, product plans, services, and internal talent strategies. Galileo, loaded with this data, is now available for thousands of aviation HR professionals to help with recruiting, job design, pay and benefits analysis, and training.

And there’s more. Through Jane and Alina’s relationships with airlines and other sources of business and economic data, the model describes how aviation talent needs vary by geography.

Aviation skills in demand in the US, for example, are tilted toward space travel and aeronautics. In the middle east, where airlines are doubling in size in 4-5 years, the critical skills are in pilots, crew, and front-office staff.

You can download the latest version of the skills matrix here, and there’s lots to learn by simply reading it. You can see how this authoritative, highly researched model can be used for training, hiring, succession, pay, and all the critical decisions airlines must face in this unprecedented period of growth.

Interested in the topics and stories shared here? Join us at our annual conference Irresistible 2026, on June 8-10 at USC in Los Angeles!

For those of you who are in other industries, let me assure you that airlines have precisely the same talent, hiring, leadership, and training problems you have – but with a safety and regulatory-driven urgency not seen in any other industry. So these are complex, highly skilled HR teams and we can all learn a lot from their experiences and stories.

I want to thank Jane, Alina, and all our airline clients and partners for supporting this work. We have much more to talk about in this fascinating industry, so please listen, learn, and join us at Irresistible.

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Additional Information

All About IATA The International Air Transport Association

Airline Industry Statistics

Galileo: The World’s Trusted Agent for Everything HR