International Women’s Day Spotlight: Laurence Vidal

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day (on 8 March) is ‘Inspire Inclusion’. Ahead of the day – which celebrates women’s achievement and promotes a more equal society – we caught up with one of Jetcraft’s senior women, Sales Director Laurence Vidal.  

In this month’s Q&A, we take a sneak peek from Laurence’s broader interview to explore how she began her aviation career and what women can do to take the next step in the aviation industry.  

Can you summarize your aviation career so far?

I started my career as an engineer at Dassault Aviation in the south of France. This was a very technical role in the flight test centre that involved working closely with mechanics on aircraft certification.   

In 2012, I had become interested in business aviation sales and moved to Brazil to pursue this, spending around eight years at Bombardier. At the beginning of last year, I took up the Sales Director role at Jetcraft overseeing South American territories including Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay.  

What inspired you to work in aviation?  

I had a very early interest in aviation, which was inspired by a friend of my parents who was a pilot for Air France. I’d always been impressed by this role and it’s why I first went to engineering school.  

What do you most love about working in business aviation?

One of the things I love most about business aviation is how each day is different. There’s always a different mission and customer to support, which means I get to enjoy the challenge of adapting and rethinking our approach every day. 

What have been your recent highlights at Jetcraft over the last few years?

The main highlight of working at Jetcraft is the amazing team spirit here. You might think there’s a sense of competition in a company where people are based in different territories around the world, but that’s not how it is. Instead, we’re always looking for the best ways to work together to deliver results, pulling together with a sense of unity. That’s rare.  

What would you like to see change about the aviation industry?

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day, Inspire Inclusion, is very timely. I think it’s fair to acknowledge that we need more women in the business aviation industry. We’ve definitely seen representation improve, there are more female sales directors, for example, but there’s still more work to do.  

Jetcraft is an active member of the International Aviation Womens Association (IAWA), an international organization for women who hold positions of impact in the aviation and aerospace industry.