Opportunities at Cairns Airport
When Eli Kepa graduated from AFL Cape York Foundation House, she already knew she wanted to work in aviation, and through their relationship with the Gunggandji Aerospace Foundation, they knew where to turn.
For Eli, from Horn Island in the Torres Strait, aviation is already part of everyday life, connecting people with family, school, work and healthcare, but she couldn’t really see where she might fit within the industry, the breadth of careers available, nor a pathway that could take her there.
The Gunggandji Aerospace Foundation exists to make careers across aviation, aerospace and Defence visible, and help create access for young First Nations people, so they have the opportunity to explore what interests them and make their own decisions about where a future career may take them.
“When AFL Cape York House told us that Eli wanted to work in aviation, the next step was to figure out how we could give her a genuine experience of the industry,” said Daniel Joinbee, Founder and Managing Director of Gunggandji Aerospace.
“I picked up the phone to Cairns Airport and they wanted to help straight away. Together, we figured out ways to remove some of those barriers that can stand in the way of opportunities like this, and put together a workplace experience that would give Eli exposure to the multitude of people and roles it takes to keep an airport running.”
More than what you see from the terminal
For most people, an airport means check in, bag drop, security and boarding a flight. During her time at Cairns Airport, Eli began to see the much bigger operation behind that passenger experience and the breadth of careers required to make it work.
With Reception and People and Culture, Eli was introduced to an entirely different side of aviation and roles she might never previously have associated with an airport. She met people working across finance, accounts, and administration, seeing how the corporate and commercial functions support everything happening on the ground.
Information technology offered another perspective, showing how technology and communications underpin airport operations, while the Infrastructure and Property team introduced Eli to the people responsible for the buildings, facilities and physical assets that keep the airport functioning.
Eli also got to experience Airside Operations, the part most people only ever see from an airplane window. There, she met the teams responsible for maintaining a safe and effective operating environment around aircraft. She learned how different functions work together to manage the airfield and why safety, security and coordination are fundamental to keeping an airport moving.
In Terminal Operations, Eli spent time with Duty Managers and Airport Coordinators, seeing firsthand how teams monitor what is happening across the terminal and respond as conditions change. She learned about the coordination behind assigning aircraft to gates and baggage to carousels, monitoring security screens and alarms, managing baggage movements and bringing together the many different activities that passengers rarely notice. What looks simple from the departure lounge is the result of people across dozens of different roles making decisions, solving problems and working together throughout the day.
Seeing where aviation could take her
Across her workplace experience, Eli was curious and eager to learn, with Jo-Anne Bell, People and Culture Business Partner at Cairns Airport, noting, “Eli continually asked really good questions and was confident enough to follow up with further questions if there was something she found particularly interesting.”
For Eli, one of the biggest discoveries was just how much opportunity existed within an industry she had previously viewed very differently. “Something that inspired me about aviation was seeing how many different career opportunities there are,” Eli said, “I got to learn new things and experience what it’s actually like in the aviation environment. It made me interested in exploring other opportunities in the industry.”
Eli’s experience at Cairns Airport was not about directing her towards a particular career. It was about giving her enough access to the industry to explore her own interstes and decide what might come next. The Gunggandji Aerospace Foundation has continued to support Eli as she explores where her interest in aviation could take her, working with industry partners to create further workplace experiences with Qantas and Jetstar.