Women in Aviation Series: Daring to Take Risks With Katinka Bergema
Share
In celebration of Women’s History Month, we’re profiling influential women in aviation to gain insight into how they navigate through a traditionally male-dominated industry.
Katinka Bergema
Postdoctoral Researcher
Katinka is a postdoctoral researcher at the Delft University of Technology. In the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, she runs a baggage research lab, is part of the PASSME research team (PASSME is a Horizon 2020-funded project) and teaches strategic design in relation to future travel experiences in BSc and MSc courses. With all these projects, she aims to improve the passenger experience and reduce travel time. For her PhD, she studied collaboration in innovation networks; as a designer, she takes a passenger-centric, future-focused, hands-on approach.
FAST FACTS
Location: RTM
Now Watching: The West Wing
Favorite Airport: The one that will be ready to deliver different baggage services.
Brand of Suitcase: Samsonite
Paper or electronic boarding pass: Electronic
Passport stamp you wish you had: Indonesia
How did you become involved in the aviation industry?
I’ve got a PhD on the collaboration between people from different organizations. Around luggage, there are many stakeholders involved, so I was asked, for the PASSME project, to study how we can reduce the door-to-door travel time for passengers with luggage and increase their experience. Together with airlines, airports, different suppliers and startups, I’m now working on door-to-door services to make that happen.
How influential are women in today’s aviation industry?
At my level, there are lots of women, and we can make the change we want to make. I don’t experience any troubles in doing so. At the top levels, there might be slightly more men, but that will probably change over time.
What are the biggest professional hurdles women in the industry face today?
I don’t experience lots of hurdles now, but sometimes I am not taken seriously at the start. I look quite young. But as soon as I say what I am doing and what I have achieved, people want to listen.
What would your advice be to a young woman interested in a career in your field?
Go for it! It’s a very nice, challenging and interesting industry. There will be lots of changes over the coming years; you can be part of it and enjoy the complexity of making change happen in this – sometimes a bit conservative – industry! The industry is very open to bright, enthusiastic and talented people, so take charge and just do it!
Why is it important that women are represented equally to men (in terms of numbers and stature) in the aviation industry?
They both have their qualities and people should be hired because of their qualities. With a complete set of qualities, we can achieve great things!
What are you most proud of in terms of your contribution to the aviation industry?
Working in the industry for a bit over a year now, I’ve an understanding of what’s going on in the industry, what we need to change and how to do this in a passenger-centric way. In different sessions, I’ve brought all the stakeholders, plus some new surprising stakeholders, together to make change happen. In one of the sessions I organized, one of the participants said, “This is the first time we’re all in one room.” I think bringing together all the stakeholders and listening to all interests is the first step in achieving innovation. From there on, we can take the next steps, and one day, there will be door-to-door luggage services.
Would you change anything about the aviation industry?
I wish more people would dare to take the first step. Everyone believes people will use door-to-door baggage services in the future, but no one dares to take the first step to actually make it happen. I want the first commercial party to stand up and say, I’ll dare to take the risk and take this step instead of waiting for someone else to do it. You can make your own future; don’t always wait for others to decide on your future.
What was your most memorable experience as an airline passenger?
Once I was on an aircraft that arrived too early in Iceland and could not land yet. The pilot had a lot of knowledge on Iceland and took us on an aerial tour around the island and explained what we were seeing below.