Ryna Brito - her rise to the head of an airline
Ryna Brito is 28 years old and lives in Manila in the Philippines. She founded her own airline and tells us how she was able to achieve her professional goals as a woman. From our HER series: Women in Asia.
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00:00I started the airline during the pandemic and that time I didn't really know much about
00:08the airline industry yet.
00:15My name is Raina Brito.
00:17I am the CEO of Sunlight Air.
00:19I am 28 years old and I'm from the Philippines.
00:25In the airline industry, there are just so many government regulated manuals, policies
00:33that you have to have approved.
00:35So in the beginning, you really need to go and meet these local government units.
00:44I've had people in my team, they don't want me to go because people might not take me
00:52seriously or they might disrespect me because I'm a woman.
01:01That is something that you could experience as a young woman in an industry full of men.
01:09But I, of course, as a woman in the 20th century, with pride, I say, no, I will go.
01:23I step into the room and I tell myself, it's okay, you can do it.
01:30And I start to prove everybody wrong.
01:33I meet these people, I get our licenses from these meetings, eventually, of course.
01:42When I took charge of operations of Sunlight Hotels and Resorts Group from my dad, there
01:49was no Sunlight Air, right?
01:52Well, that time, there were really very little airlines that were flying to Busuanga.
02:01So that was the main reason why we started the airline business.
02:06Sunlight Air, it's really propelling the business despite the pandemic.
02:15I've always dreamt of Sunlight Air to be at least one of the top three or four domestic
02:22airlines in the Philippines.
02:24So I want to grow more routes domestically and then hopefully grow some regional flights.
02:34We are in an industry where most of our staff are male.
02:39So it's important for us that we are welcoming of female pilots, female mechanics.
02:47We're welcoming of female engineers.
02:57We need to let children of the generation today know that if they want to be in the
03:04airline or aviation industry, that they are more than welcome.
03:10So basically, as a CEO, I cover everything that happens in this business.
03:21I would want to take a step back a little bit.
03:28I have a team of 120 now, and I do want to delegate to my team as much as possible.
03:36But sometimes, yes, I cannot help but know every detail.
03:40Because of course, I started this startup, this baby, from scratch.
03:44I cannot help to know every detail, but yes, I am hoping that I get to let go of some details.