The Trinity Award for Diversity & Inclusion: Aer Rianta International

Aer Rianta International (ARI), a pioneering force in the global travel retail industry, is also a leader in the field of Environment, Social and Governance (ESG).

The company is on a journey to match its ambitions with action and results in areas such as gender balance, inclusivity and creating a more diverse talent pipeline – and has taken many big strides forward in each area. Its International Women’s Day celebration of the diverse and inspiring women working at the travel retail company represents a powerful underlining of its many success stories, and an assurance that all women’s ambitions are recognised by the company.

From senior management to the shop floor, the stated aim and mission of the company is to ensure that “every voice is heard, every opinion is considered”. That in turn means empowering colleagues to be interested in, and to understand, the importance of the values of diversity & inclusion on moving the company forward, and allowing everyone the opportunity to make a positive impact.

The ethos of the Irish state-owned multinational was neatly expressed by ARI General Counsel Gareth Byrne, who is also Executive Sponsor for Diversity & Inclusion, in an interview earlier this year.

He told us: “We believe that a focus on diversity and inclusion – let’s call it D&I – never ends. There is always scope to improve. ARI has made great strides in D&I right across its global estate and our D&I strategy is now under one big umbrella so we can share ideas across our global network.

“We want everyone, every employee, to feel welcome and part of the ARI team, at the same time comfortable to be themselves. Our D&I strategy goes further too; it includes our customers.

“Our overall vision for D&I at ARI is to ‘be yourself, whoever you are, wherever you are from. At ARI, you are welcome’”.

Crucially, and as management in other companies will recognise, the D&I drive is a journey rather than a destination. ARI created a global framework to guide its diversity activities in 2021, but that is just the start.

As Byrne says: “ARI is in a great space, but we are still in our infancy; we’ve achieved a lot last year, but we have a lot more to do.”