• Aer Lingus Float taxied through the parade with 300 Aer Lingus staff, family and friends

Over 300 Aer Lingus staff, family and friends accompanied the Aer Lingus Float as it taxied through the Dublin Pride Festival today. Aer Lingus is the official airline for the Dublin Pride Festival 2019. The Aer Lingus Float took the form of an A320 aircraft completed in the new Aer Lingus livery, the iconic Aer Lingus shamrock flying high over the float, with some additional details in the form of a rainbow jet stream, Aer Lingus Proud Flies Wing Tips and complete with clouds, as it was taxied by a Proud Flies aircraft tug through O’Connell Street along the parade route to Merrion Square.

The Aer Lingus Float, built by Bui Bolg in Wexford, had 20 Aer Lingus staff members on board. It was piloted by DJ Gordo (Gordon Johnson) and crewed by Craig Fitzgerald, Aer Lingus Cabin Services Manager, who is also part-time Drag Queen, Avryll Nitrate.

This is the second year Aer Lingus has been official airline to the Festival, an initiative led by staff and members of the Aer Lingus Proud Flies network. Aer Lingus set up Proud Flies as part of its Diversity and Inclusion strategy to build an inclusive, open LGBT+ community where employees feel they can bring their whole selves to work. Aer Lingus sought to create an inclusive working environment and remaining an employer of choice, while raising wider employee awareness and being intolerant of harassment and discrimination.

Mike Rutter, Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Aer Lingus said;

“The Aer Lingus Proud Flies network was set up in 2017 to ensure that diversity is at the heart of everything we do at Aer Lingus, so that staff feels supported to bring their whole and true selves to work, and by doing so we would become a more diverse company as a result. We also wanted this diversity to match the diversity of our guests who choose to travel with us. We have made great progress in making Aer Lingus a diverse place to work and we want to build on that success. Our presence at Pride today is a celebration of that progress and we’re excited to be here taking part with 300 staff, family and friends.” 

Activities of Proud Flies include a number of internal initiatives to educate and support the network including employee and manager workshops, LGBT+ speaker events such as workshops discussing transgender transitioning in the workplace, allyship and the spectrum of gender, hosted by OUTstanding and BelongTo. A number of social events including a number of dog walks over the past number of months, where staff come together in their free time and gather some top tips from a local dog trainer, and weekly networking events to build working relationships. A key highlight of the network is to the celebration of Pride Week and involvement in the festival.