In May 2018, Joanna Geraghty became one of the highest-ranking women in the commercial airline industry as JetBlue Airways’ president and COO. In 2024, she shattered the glass ceiling again when she was named the carrier’s next CEO, making her the first woman to lead a major U.S. airline.
A key player in JetBlue’s success since 2005, Geraghty has led a national push to increase the number of women throughout the aviation industry. According to the JetBlue Foundation’s “Fly Like a Girl” initiative, fewer than 7% of airline pilots and 3% of aircraft technicians are female. The initiative aims to make women a key part of aviation’s future, from tarmac to boardroom.
Under Geraghty’s leadership, JetBlue will also be the only major airline to include women in at least half of the company’s top C-suite roles. At a 2018 Fly Like a Girl event, she explained that the key to expanding women’s presence throughout the industry is correlated to early experiences in science, technology, engineering, and math: “It’s about exposure. We know that the more you expose girls and young women to careers in STEM, the more they start thinking that they can do that type of career.”
