TORONTO — Air Canada has been named one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers for the fifth year in a row.

The award from Mediacorp Canada Inc., which cited the airline’s continuing work to foster inclusiveness through partnerships and direct outreach to diverse communities when recruiting, comes on the heels of the Air Canada’s Women of Aviation Worldwide Week celebrations.

“We firmly believe that having a diverse and inclusive workforce is not only a true strength for Air Canada, but one that helps us to attract and retain the best available global talent. We are extremely proud of the fact that our customers and stakeholders can see themselves and their diverse backgrounds reflected in our 37,000 employees around the world. Our people work in more than 80 languages, and women occupy prominent roles throughout our airline, from non-traditional roles to the C-suite,” said Arielle Meloul-Wechsler, Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources and Communications Officer at Air Canada.

“We actively advance diversity through several initiatives, including recruitment partnerships with Indigenous peoples, LGBTQ, people with disabilities and other communities,” she added.

In naming Air Canada to the list of Best Diversity Employers, Mediacorp Canada Inc. cited the airline’s inclusivity through partnerships, including Indspire’s Indigenous scholarship and award program, which provides financial support for Indigenous students completing their education in an aviation-related program. Air Canada has also teamed up with Jazz Aviation to create a partnership with First Nations Technical Institute to help young Aboriginal students become pilots. And its partnership with Ready, Willing and Able matches the unique qualifications of candidates with intellectual disabilities or Autism Spectrum Disorder to specific roles.

Canada’s Best Diversity Employers competition recognizes the nations’ leaders in creating inclusive workplaces for employees from five diverse groups: women, visible minorities, persons with disabilities, Indigenous peoples, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender/transsexual (LGBTQ) peoples. Employers are selected by the editors at Mediacorp based on submissions to the annual Canada’s Top 100 Employers project.

In addition to being named one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers for 2020, Air Canada has received other recent recognitions for employee relations and engagement including being named one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers, Montreal’s Top Employers 2020 and one of the Most Engaged Workplaces in North America.