HEBRON, Ky. — Despite increasing female representation, aviation remains a male-dominated field. On Wednesday, hundreds of women helped to close the gap as they led the first-ever all-female crew at Amazon Air's hub in Greater Cincinnati.
Female team members handled all operations, from ground control to aircraft loading. The 800,000-square-foot facility spans 600 acres at CVG airport.
The hub, which opened in 2021, is Amazon Air's largest investment in its global network. When operations first began, only a handful of women held leadership roles.
"What was really cool about today was seeing a lot of the same female associates, team members, now leaders that were a part of that initial crew and have grown," Calhoun Clifton said. "Every single one of them has been promoted at least once so that's just a really cool and inspiring example to set for all of the females that come behind us, just showing that resilience of our female leadership."
Clifton has been with KCVG since the beginning. Four years later, she's worked up the ranks to lead as a Ramp Stretch Senior Operations Manager.
Watch how an all-female crew ran operations at the largest Amazon Air hub in the world:
Clifton ensures hundreds of thousands of packages are efficiently transported on and off the more than three dozen cargo planes moving through the hub each day. When she's not monitoring that process on the ground, she's doing so from above inside the facility's control tower.
"Dispatching our crew and our aircraft and our tugs to continue a steady flow of downloads to get the freight inside and then back inside," Clifton said. "Being a part of the team back when we had 34 associates here and our first plane and seeing how we have grown and how we have scaled, there is such a sense of pride in seeing where we are now."
Amazon Air's women's employee-led group helped organize the operation as part of the company's Women's History Month celebrations. Senior Operations Leader Stephanie Mahaffey took WCPO on a tour through the facility to showcase the historic day.
"It's incredibly important. Not only is our first all-female-led team — it's across all three shifts. That is something we have not done yet before. So this (group) is breaking barriers, we're giving additional seats at the table for a voice to be heard," Mahaffey said. "It's important for our crew to continue giving additional resources to our employee-led group. It's incredibly important to continue to give back to the associates and to let them thrive and develop."
Mahaffey oversees the day-to-day operations of all freight both inside and outside the facility along with the associates who process the rotation throughout the day.
That includes the hub's nervous system — the robotics floor. Inside the tech-heavy section, thousands of robots sort, lift and transport packages throughout the facility. Though automated movers make up most of the workforce on the robotics floor, a few dozen human hands keep busy too.
"(Amazon Robotics) floor is the best," said Dee Stenson, one of KCVG's longest-tenured female employees.
The process assistant just celebrated 6 years with Amazon Air. Her fluorescent safety vest speaks to her enthusiasm. Her rhinestone-bedazzled name is spelled out on the back while pins she earned for different accomplishments on the job cover the rest.
"Oh, it's amazing," Stenson said about Wednesday's all-female crew. "It's a one-up for us. We're not in the back anymore. We don't have to be quiet. We're in charge."
After loading some of the final packages onto a plane during the day shift, the ground operations team lined up in a show of camaraderie. They held a banner that read "Women at AIR" before posing for a few photos — a nod to Rosie the Riveter and an "Amazon!" shout included.
"I think that it sends the message that we can do anything, right?" Clifton said. "A historically male-dominated industry, to see all of these really inspiring female leaders that I get to work side by side every day. The only way that we can really change the narrative is to continue to be here, to be present."
