PODCAST: Celebrating International Women's Day

On this International Women's Day, we take time to recognize and celebrate the contribution of women around the world with a special thank you to those in our industry.

Statistically speaking, Aviation still is a male-dominated industry, despite that, Deutsche Aircraft is privileged to have extremely successful female leaders. So we've invited Regina Pouzolz, Head of Sustainability, Claudia Juricic, Head of Material & Processes and Patrícia Ferrari, Head of Procurement to answer some questions and share their experiences and suggestions to young female leaders.

We’ve prepared a few highlights of our conversation, and if you want to hear it in full, make sure to listen to our Podcast.

As a female engineer, have you encountered any challenges during your work and studies?

Regina:
I think that engineers, technicians, physicians, they're all so passionate about technology, but at least that's how I feel it that it's not so much a matter of if people are a man or a woman, or I don't know, whatever its passion for technology that drives the people. And that's in the focus. And so you always have a discussion that is really around technical topics. But I think there are few role models, that is a problem for me. So that's why I also like participating in this because I never had any women in front of me that I had in mind. In my family, there was no engineer. And even my mother would ask me why I would do such a harsh topic. So I think it's a good idea to have role models.

And what about Patricia, do you do you have role models? Or when you choose to choose to join engineering or join this field?

Patricia:
No, I hadn't as well. I had when I decided to join the STEM. Though, at that time, no role models. I believe that during my career, I started to look to some other colleagues and see them as role models when I was still in new in the carrer and I always look for good examples male or female, and I believe that ours helped it because being a woman, I'd have not faced anything during university I believe it's equal for for everybody. When I started working, also, I think was the same but once I started to grow in my career and going for a more leadership position. I can tell you that sometimes I felt that a little bit because our industry is still male dominant. And sometimes being the only woman in leadership meetings. It's sometimes it's more about us, you know, you feel sometimes that everybody's judging you. I think we ask too much from ourselves from us then from the outside. So I think that we face a little bit that we are too demanding to ourselves, to change ourselves, we wanted to be very competent, and we need to we want to show that we don't want anybody to think anything else about us. So I think we are I felt that a little bit until I will have my, my space. No, really, my grounds done.

Claudia:
I totally agree, Patricia, totally agree. I mean, to be honest, I really don't remember that I have faced problems or challenges because I'm a woman, I mean, never. But on the other hand, I had a lot of situations where I also was alone in these meetings only guys, or even older, let's say maybe older men from the, let's say, old grown up, period. And then you need a little bit to adjust your behaviour. And, but this at the end it was also fine. So I also in the school or university, there was never, let's say, challenge for me only because I'm a woman.

So, Claudia, you mentioned that you might have to change the behaviour a bit to adopt? Can you give an example like what kind of change?

Claudia:
I’ll give you an example. So when I come into the meeting room, then I take my laptop and, but use a lot of space and so on to show how important I am. And this is this? Yeah. Because usually, we women, we are, very sometimes talk very silently and sit in here. And this is what you have to show to the guy say, yeah, there was one this that was really funny, there was one moment, there was also another lady walks in a meeting. And we both were sitting already prepared for the meeting. And then the guys were still standing around and chatting here and chatting that and then there was one guy, he wanted to let the other guys know that he is, you know, had a good relationship with the big boss and so on. And then, after a while, we got we took a look on the time and also and then this lady, she smashed her hand on the table and said, Are we ready now to start the meeting? Yeah. And so this, of course, I think you also you have a lot of stories in there. This is what I mean was you have to adapt your behaviour. Also that you also understand the guys that this is needed for them. Yeah, they must, you know, it's this levelling, and how about positions and influence and, and strains and so on, they have to, I think they need to exchange this much more than we, I would say.

Now that you are the role models, do you have some tips for young female leaders?

Regina
I would like to encourage young women not only to learn how to survive in the male world but also to stick with female values, which are a complement to the male surrounding but of course, we have to be realistic. And if you want to survive, you need to kind of navigate through the existing rules.

Patricia:
Yeah, I think we I also would encourage the young ladies to really be themselves. I think we can find our ways and keeping the value of being female in a male universe and really get our voice out there. I believe in that. I think that we really can have our space there. And also my advice is that I feel I have been a leader of groups, big groups of different candidates. And I always feel that the men are much more demanding in terms of asking for what they want in terms of career, you know, they ask that want to grow, they ask about the salaries, they complain. And my experience as a leader of girls, they never do that. And I have never done myself doing my career, you know? And that's the reason I believe that when you look for all these statistics, women in leadership, want less than men because we claim less for what we believe it's fair for us. So this is one advice that I will also give to the young lady, don't be shy to ask why do you believe your worth for.

Lin:
So if I could come to a quick sum up to your suggestion to young woman leaders is that don't be afraid to ask, don't be afraid to claim that you deserve to be more courageous to negotiate for your career. And try to take advantage of the part that will not take advantage sounds like a loaded phrase, but actually tried to establish a woman's way of working and to get the others to acknowledge that woman's way of working is a very complimentary way of working, it's not the dominant, dominating way, but it's another way and it's a great way. And also tried to be assertive in terms of voice and in terms of physical space, when entering a meeting, that's, that's my suggestion from Claudia

Patricia:
We don't need to dress like a man, we don't need to start wearing makeup. You don't need to become like a man to really to have our space. You still can be very female. And in sometimes it's I have had circumstances where I was very well dressed because we're so important event and you feel that somebody was looking, you need to deal with that as well. But you will. Once you have consistence and you have always a good thing to deliver, you will be respected.

Is there a trait of your leadership style that you are proud of and would like to share, regardless of gender?

Regina:
I really try to be integrated in my team. And I firmly believe in the best outcome, is if everybody has had the possibility to contribute and to say something. So if the team decides it will always be the best result. And sometimes that takes more time. And sometimes you don't have the time. So as a leader, you have to stop it and then make a decision that that happens. But in general, I really tried to make everybody participate.

Claudia:
I mean, I feel so as a leader, as a head of, the most important thing is I think I really managed to do this so, that I'm an enabler for the team you know, not only the boss you know and you know the most important person and so now I'm an enabler I have to I support I have to support the team and that way that they have the freedom to do the job the tasks and the deliveries we really have to perform. And also what I try to let my team know is that is of course I'm I have the lead but that doesn't mean that I know everything the best so I said when they when I always liked this discussion and when they think that they know better than they just let me know and then we have a discussion I can learn we can we know this a mutual learning that's also the reason why I like to have young people in the team now. So coming as a fresh idea in Yeah, this is it's for me extremely important that everybody can say or bring in ideas. And this is something really, I think in the aerospace industry very very important that we have this that we want to help each other and not to hide your knowledge or something so that you have fun and joy to really to share your knowledge and experience. And in the end it's about trust I don't control my team at that sense. Now I don't take a local, when did he came this morning and when did he leave or something like that or whatever

Patricia:
Claudia said the word that I would say that is “trust”. So I will believe that this is really important from both sides or I need to trust the team. And they need to trust me and know that I will be there to support them on every occasion. And another important characteristic of my leadership style is simplicity. I always try to make the lives of my team easier. So let's simplify let's you know not to ask for hundreds of over-complicated controls or PowerPoint presentations. So I really like the team to feel that I'm trying to make their day by day work easier and lighter, that if they need to share an issue with me that my door is open and they don't need to bring a lot of material to discuss it to come and talk you know, and we will exchange and suggest solutions and try to figure out the best way forward. So I believe it is being very important. Normally in procurement or world we are always overloaded with a lot of things to do. And so I always try to simplify and to be quick on the actions that sometimes prevent them to proceed, for example, there's sometimes a lot of approvals that need to take place. So try always to be fast, because I know that this sometimes it's very important on and on the daily activities so summarising, I would say to us in simplest.


That's all for this amazing interview. If you would like to see and learn more about Deutsche Aircraft and our team, make sure to follow us on LinkedIn and stay alert for news coming soon on www.deutscheaircraft.com.

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Building the future of flight

PODCAST: Celebrating International Women's Day

March 8, 2022
PODCAST: Celebrating International Women's Day

On this International Women's Day, we take time to recognize and celebrate the contribution of women around the world with a special thank you to those in our industry.

Statistically speaking, Aviation still is a male-dominated industry, despite that, Deutsche Aircraft is privileged to have extremely successful female leaders. So we've invited Regina Pouzolz, Head of Sustainability, Claudia Juricic, Head of Material & Processes and Patrícia Ferrari, Head of Procurement to answer some questions and share their experiences and suggestions to young female leaders.

We’ve prepared a few highlights of our conversation, and if you want to hear it in full, make sure to listen to our Podcast.

As a female engineer, have you encountered any challenges during your work and studies?

Regina:
I think that engineers, technicians, physicians, they're all so passionate about technology, but at least that's how I feel it that it's not so much a matter of if people are a man or a woman, or I don't know, whatever its passion for technology that drives the people. And that's in the focus. And so you always have a discussion that is really around technical topics. But I think there are few role models, that is a problem for me. So that's why I also like participating in this because I never had any women in front of me that I had in mind. In my family, there was no engineer. And even my mother would ask me why I would do such a harsh topic. So I think it's a good idea to have role models.

And what about Patricia, do you do you have role models? Or when you choose to choose to join engineering or join this field?

Patricia:
No, I hadn't as well. I had when I decided to join the STEM. Though, at that time, no role models. I believe that during my career, I started to look to some other colleagues and see them as role models when I was still in new in the carrer and I always look for good examples male or female, and I believe that ours helped it because being a woman, I'd have not faced anything during university I believe it's equal for for everybody. When I started working, also, I think was the same but once I started to grow in my career and going for a more leadership position. I can tell you that sometimes I felt that a little bit because our industry is still male dominant. And sometimes being the only woman in leadership meetings. It's sometimes it's more about us, you know, you feel sometimes that everybody's judging you. I think we ask too much from ourselves from us then from the outside. So I think that we face a little bit that we are too demanding to ourselves, to change ourselves, we wanted to be very competent, and we need to we want to show that we don't want anybody to think anything else about us. So I think we are I felt that a little bit until I will have my, my space. No, really, my grounds done.

Claudia:
I totally agree, Patricia, totally agree. I mean, to be honest, I really don't remember that I have faced problems or challenges because I'm a woman, I mean, never. But on the other hand, I had a lot of situations where I also was alone in these meetings only guys, or even older, let's say maybe older men from the, let's say, old grown up, period. And then you need a little bit to adjust your behaviour. And, but this at the end it was also fine. So I also in the school or university, there was never, let's say, challenge for me only because I'm a woman.

So, Claudia, you mentioned that you might have to change the behaviour a bit to adopt? Can you give an example like what kind of change?

Claudia:
I’ll give you an example. So when I come into the meeting room, then I take my laptop and, but use a lot of space and so on to show how important I am. And this is this? Yeah. Because usually, we women, we are, very sometimes talk very silently and sit in here. And this is what you have to show to the guy say, yeah, there was one this that was really funny, there was one moment, there was also another lady walks in a meeting. And we both were sitting already prepared for the meeting. And then the guys were still standing around and chatting here and chatting that and then there was one guy, he wanted to let the other guys know that he is, you know, had a good relationship with the big boss and so on. And then, after a while, we got we took a look on the time and also and then this lady, she smashed her hand on the table and said, Are we ready now to start the meeting? Yeah. And so this, of course, I think you also you have a lot of stories in there. This is what I mean was you have to adapt your behaviour. Also that you also understand the guys that this is needed for them. Yeah, they must, you know, it's this levelling, and how about positions and influence and, and strains and so on, they have to, I think they need to exchange this much more than we, I would say.

Now that you are the role models, do you have some tips for young female leaders?

Regina
I would like to encourage young women not only to learn how to survive in the male world but also to stick with female values, which are a complement to the male surrounding but of course, we have to be realistic. And if you want to survive, you need to kind of navigate through the existing rules.

Patricia:
Yeah, I think we I also would encourage the young ladies to really be themselves. I think we can find our ways and keeping the value of being female in a male universe and really get our voice out there. I believe in that. I think that we really can have our space there. And also my advice is that I feel I have been a leader of groups, big groups of different candidates. And I always feel that the men are much more demanding in terms of asking for what they want in terms of career, you know, they ask that want to grow, they ask about the salaries, they complain. And my experience as a leader of girls, they never do that. And I have never done myself doing my career, you know? And that's the reason I believe that when you look for all these statistics, women in leadership, want less than men because we claim less for what we believe it's fair for us. So this is one advice that I will also give to the young lady, don't be shy to ask why do you believe your worth for.

Lin:
So if I could come to a quick sum up to your suggestion to young woman leaders is that don't be afraid to ask, don't be afraid to claim that you deserve to be more courageous to negotiate for your career. And try to take advantage of the part that will not take advantage sounds like a loaded phrase, but actually tried to establish a woman's way of working and to get the others to acknowledge that woman's way of working is a very complimentary way of working, it's not the dominant, dominating way, but it's another way and it's a great way. And also tried to be assertive in terms of voice and in terms of physical space, when entering a meeting, that's, that's my suggestion from Claudia

Patricia:
We don't need to dress like a man, we don't need to start wearing makeup. You don't need to become like a man to really to have our space. You still can be very female. And in sometimes it's I have had circumstances where I was very well dressed because we're so important event and you feel that somebody was looking, you need to deal with that as well. But you will. Once you have consistence and you have always a good thing to deliver, you will be respected.

Is there a trait of your leadership style that you are proud of and would like to share, regardless of gender?

Regina:
I really try to be integrated in my team. And I firmly believe in the best outcome, is if everybody has had the possibility to contribute and to say something. So if the team decides it will always be the best result. And sometimes that takes more time. And sometimes you don't have the time. So as a leader, you have to stop it and then make a decision that that happens. But in general, I really tried to make everybody participate.

Claudia:
I mean, I feel so as a leader, as a head of, the most important thing is I think I really managed to do this so, that I'm an enabler for the team you know, not only the boss you know and you know the most important person and so now I'm an enabler I have to I support I have to support the team and that way that they have the freedom to do the job the tasks and the deliveries we really have to perform. And also what I try to let my team know is that is of course I'm I have the lead but that doesn't mean that I know everything the best so I said when they when I always liked this discussion and when they think that they know better than they just let me know and then we have a discussion I can learn we can we know this a mutual learning that's also the reason why I like to have young people in the team now. So coming as a fresh idea in Yeah, this is it's for me extremely important that everybody can say or bring in ideas. And this is something really, I think in the aerospace industry very very important that we have this that we want to help each other and not to hide your knowledge or something so that you have fun and joy to really to share your knowledge and experience. And in the end it's about trust I don't control my team at that sense. Now I don't take a local, when did he came this morning and when did he leave or something like that or whatever

Patricia:
Claudia said the word that I would say that is “trust”. So I will believe that this is really important from both sides or I need to trust the team. And they need to trust me and know that I will be there to support them on every occasion. And another important characteristic of my leadership style is simplicity. I always try to make the lives of my team easier. So let's simplify let's you know not to ask for hundreds of over-complicated controls or PowerPoint presentations. So I really like the team to feel that I'm trying to make their day by day work easier and lighter, that if they need to share an issue with me that my door is open and they don't need to bring a lot of material to discuss it to come and talk you know, and we will exchange and suggest solutions and try to figure out the best way forward. So I believe it is being very important. Normally in procurement or world we are always overloaded with a lot of things to do. And so I always try to simplify and to be quick on the actions that sometimes prevent them to proceed, for example, there's sometimes a lot of approvals that need to take place. So try always to be fast, because I know that this sometimes it's very important on and on the daily activities so summarising, I would say to us in simplest.


That's all for this amazing interview. If you would like to see and learn more about Deutsche Aircraft and our team, make sure to follow us on LinkedIn and stay alert for news coming soon on www.deutscheaircraft.com.

About the data:
- Source: Cirium
- Schedules data: full year 2019 vs. 2020 – excludes non-scheduled flying
- In-service data:
- For 2019 the data is dated April while for 2020 it’s dated October. We wanted to compare “shoulder month” to shoulder month, however April 2020 wouldn’t have captured the immediate impact of Coronavirus as our dataset classes aircraft as in storage after 3 months of inactivity.

DA Aviation Ecosystem Review

We are proud to present, “Aviation Ecosystem Review 2020.”
Based on market research surrounding our vision of building a sustainable future for aviation, this report provides insight into how we see Deutsche Aircraft fitting into the everchanging aviation environment.

Download the report for free here.

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Welcome: New Leadership Onboard

Nico Neumann Deutsche Aircraft

Nico’s responsibilities as Vice President of Operations & Programs include development of aircraft production programs, maintenance, overall quality management and ensuring infrastructure and knowledge are in place to meet future needs.

Read more

As Director of Supply Chain, Maximilian’s role is to lead development and growth of all supply chain activities under a consolidated strategy.

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DA Latest News in a Nutshell

New talent appointed to strengthen the Deutsche aircraft programme

As part of its continued support of Deutsche Aircraft’s D328eco aircraft programme, 328 Support Services GmbH recently appointed a panel of “talent experts” to further strengthen the overall team and ensure strong management structure and processes are in place across the D328eco development programme. Today we focus on the Engineering & Programme departments.

On the programme side, Mr. Peter Spyrka has been appointed Director of Programmes. Peter brings over 20 years’ experience in the global aerospace industry with engineering & development works on both civil and military aircraft programmes. Prior to joining Deutsche Aircraft, Peter worked at Airbus, leading the Hybrid Electric Propulsion System development programme for demonstrator projects. He also worked for Fairchild Dornier back in the late 1990’s.

In Engineering, Mr. Jean-Damien Mazeau has been appointed as our new Head of Propulsion Systems. Jean-Damien also brings more than 20 years’ aeronautical experience to Deutsche Aircraft, having built most of his career at Airbus. He was most recently involved with the A320neo’s entry into service, in charge of propulsion system’s global technical Support.

Last but not least, Dr. Stefan Brunner brings more than two decades of expertise and experience to his position as Head of Airframe. Throughout his career, Stefan spent more than 17 years working directly for the Airbus group where he was heavily involved with a wide variety of major engineering programmes on both commercial aviation and defence & space programmes. In his new role, Stefan will be responsible for design, analysis and modification of the D328eco airframe’s primary structure (Fuselage, Fairings, Wing, Empennage), as well as establishing new processes and procedures to complete aircraft development. Finally, he is responsible for ensuring compliance with the European Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulations.

In addition to Peter, Jean Damien and Stefan, we are also proud to announce that we have been busy hiring new talent from not only within Germany, but from all over the world. Coming from a variety of companies within the aerospace industry, we look forward to utilising our new team members’ skills and expertise to achieve the entry into service scheduled for 2025.

All are great assets to the current Engineering & Programme team and will, without a doubt, help support Deutsche Aircraft’s development programme over the coming years.

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Aviation Ecosystem Review 2020

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ESG in Aviation 2022

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