[00:00:10] Speaker A: Welcome to this edition of the Sky Careers Podcast. I'm your host, Mark Hodgson, and today we're talking with someone who knows firsthand what it takes to thrive in this industry. I'm joined by Stephanie difava, who is an airport coordination officer. She'll take us from her early days at Virgin to her current role, managing the complex dance of aircraft crew and passengers that happens every day at Adelaide Airport in South Australia.
What I loved about Stephanie's story is that it wasn't carefully plotted from day one. Like many of us, she navigated by saying yes to opportunities, building relationships, taking some risks, and learning on the fly.
Steph will share her experiences about working in an environment where precision matters and mistakes can have serious consequences. She also shares her favorite Italian recipe and gives some advice for those considering a role in aviation. So grab a coffee, settle in, and enjoy my conversation with Steph difava.
Hey. Welcome to this edition of the Sky Careers Podcast. It's my great pleasure today to welcome Stephanie difava.
She is the Airport Coordination Officer at Adelaide Airport and she was one of the original Sky Careers ambassadors.
And I was really keen to get Steph on the podcast to share her experience and to detail the role she's got because it's probably something a lot of listeners won't know about. And I know Steph's doing a great job at Adelaide Airport. I wanted to. I wanted her to share what she's about, how she got into her role and what it involves. So, Steph, without further ado, welcome to the Sky Careers Podcast.
[00:02:12] Speaker B: Hello. Thank you so much for having me.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: That's awesome. So, yeah, I'll start with a question. I always start with, what's your name, what do you do, and where do you work?
[00:02:23] Speaker B: Hi. So my name is Stephanie Defavo. I am a airport coordination officer for Adelaide Airport in South Australia.
[00:02:31] Speaker A: Excellent. And, you know, going back, where did you go to school and. And were you doing a whole load of aviation subjects or what were your other favorites?
[00:02:40] Speaker B: If only they were available. But I went to school in South Australia, small school, and I actually was more geared toward certain subjects that were more language based. I was less mathematically or science inclined. I really enjoyed English and Italian and actually even a bit of accounting. I found I was quite good at writing, so I sort of pigeonhole myself. Figured out math and science wasn't for me and, yeah, lent him to the others.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: Amazing. So how did that all conspire to lead you into aviation? What was your first role in aviation?
[00:03:21] Speaker B: So my very first role actually Began while I was in uni. I was a guest service agent for Virgin at Adelaide Airport in 2019 and I actually fell into it in some ways. I might speak on it a bit later, but I leaving high school I thought maybe I'd be going into accounting or perhaps a business degree or something a little bit less aviation involved. Until I actually found out aviation was something I could pursue as a, at a tertiary level and not just in the space of being a pilot or engineer. So I found out that Virgin was hiring and I fell into that role and I really enjoyed it. I was just in the front of house in the airport helping guests check in, get all their passport and boarding pass matters up to scratch and I really, really enjoyed that. It was a fantastic role.
[00:04:22] Speaker A: Yeah. How long did you do that for, Steph?
[00:04:24] Speaker B: Only about 10 months because Covid unfortunately came about and I had to leave.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: Okay, and so how did you get into your current role at Adelaide Airport?
[00:04:39] Speaker B: Well, since my first role in aviation with Virgin, I've culminated a little bit more aviation experience. I've had various different roles with different organizations be it maintenance companies or helicopter charter companies or other fixed wing airlines. And they've all I feel like helped piece together my learning and I've learned a breadth of experience with all these different jobs even though some of them have been fly alike and some of them have even been more administration based.
I've yeah, had been fortunate enough to get this well versed outlook on how different aviation businesses work and that I feel helped me get into the role I'm in now with Adelaide Airport.
[00:05:29] Speaker A: Amazing. So tell us a bit about your current role. Tell us what you do.
[00:05:33] Speaker B: Yes. So like I said, I'm a coordination officer, which actually is, it's quite a broad role and one that is sometimes a little bit difficult to explain when my family or friends ask me what I do on a day to day basis. But in general, in the general sense, it's an operations based role. 24,7 presence in the terminal and our primary focus I'd say would be to triage information, sort of act like a little bit of a call center for so many different stakeholders. And I, yes, our primary function I'd say would be to help manage aircraft movements and then beyond that we're also a point of contact for like I mentioned, all those stakeholders who might need our assistance in the terminal for something and also emergency response management and other secondary factors. So yeah, every, each day is never like the one prior. It's always a really fun learning opportunity and a very, very Diverse, broad role to be involved in.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: Sounds right. So you, as I understand it, so pretty much all the various aircraft operators, the public, various suppliers, emergency services, federal services, certainly yes, all of those. You're kind of, you're kind of helping, helping the smooth running of the, of the airport.
[00:06:55] Speaker B: That's it, yes. Yeah. From the day of operations perspective, sometimes when things tend to go a little bit wrong or when you're sort of at the coal face, you're helping deal with delays and disruption and all those other sorts of circumstances which yeah, it's always very fun to help troubleshoot and get involved with all these people.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: So just, just talk, talk me through a. Take us on a journey. Talk, talk us through a typical, typical day. What does, what if I assume. Well, what does it look like?
[00:07:28] Speaker B: Sure. So I, like I mentioned I'm a shift worker so I. And our primary function is to help with these aircraft movement management. So we'll get into our office and our primary function will be to just constantly monitor these aircraft coming and going if they're coming on time, if not, if they perhaps have technical issues. We're just constantly managing our bay usage and trying to find an optimal solution for all the ground hand delivers or engineers that hopefully doesn't require too much towing or moving about or changes to plans.
As we all know, aviation is a very dynamic operation. There's so many facets that can affect the on time performance of aircraft. And beyond that we have obviously our other stakeholders in the terminal who are using our infrastructure, who may need our assistance if we need to intervene as far as getting that infrastructure serviceable if anything were to break down.
And also it goes without saying that emergency response is an important and ever present facet in the background. Obviously you hope nothing goes wrong, but sometimes be it in the terminal or air side, things can happen. And we are, in my role, we are helping to triage information when it becomes available to us to just make sure we are coordinating the appropriate response for whatever incident or emergency might take place which you hope doesn't happen all too often at all. So we're just constantly on our computers, on our phones taking part in these sorts of roles. I hope that explains it a little bit.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I've got. So is there like a control room as such where you kind of go.
You're like the nerve center of the airport?
[00:09:29] Speaker B: We are, yes. We actually have our control room where there's not too many of us at one given time.
It's a. Yeah, obviously a space separate from the terminal itself. So we Beautiful view and that's where we operate.
[00:09:47] Speaker A: So I guess ideally you want a drama free day where aircraft arrive on time, they depart on time, the weather's benign, there are no mechanical issues and the ins and outs are as planned and on time. That's the theory, right?
[00:10:04] Speaker B: It is, yes. Obviously the theory doesn't always pan out in that way, but it's. I'm not saying it's fun to have a terrible day or for things to go wrong, but it does put you to practice and challenge you a little bit. When you do need to step up and say the weather isn't up to scratch or there's rolling delays from other airports, it is act as a bit of a challenge and they can be a little bit of excitement to deal with.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: What would you say are the key, the key skills or attributes you need to I guess, stay calm when, when, when the unexpected's happening. And obviously from a, from the most, the most extreme level, from a, from a, from a, from a safety perspective, but other levels, just from a general logistical perspective, you've got lots of passengers waiting to get on and off airplane. You know, all the sort of pressure, the pressures and expectations around that. I'm just wondering what are the key qualities you need to, to be a, to be an amazing airport coordination officer?
[00:11:06] Speaker B: Well, in my opinion, I think the, one of the first attributes most important would be being able to communicate effectively. And obviously in a high pressure environment at times, you, you're going to have a multitude of, multitude of people trying to contact you and you'll have a lot of information you'll need to disseminate and you need to be able to obviously, if things aren't going as smoothly as we anticipate or would like, you need to be able to mitigate and manage that and communicate out maybe less desirable information in an effective way and also efficiently. So knowing how to do that sometimes delicately and appropriately can be a little bit of an artificial. I would also say multitasking, being able to multitask. Obviously you need to prioritize jobs and you've got multiple things on the fly. You need to be overseeing or doing and knowing how, what takes precedence and like you said, safety is important and paramount. So you need to be keeping that in the forefront of your mind as you're trying to do multiple things at once.
And yeah, teamwork, I was going to.
[00:12:20] Speaker A: Say that was exactly my next question.
This sounds like something that when it's done well is just a fantastic example of teamwork. And I know that teamwork I Mean, in all the conversations we have around aviation, I think one of the key things that always strikes me is how much aviation is a team game. Yeah, it's a team game, but specifically as it pertains to, you know, your role and running an airport and keeping things moving and prioritizing when things, everything's changing all the time potentially. And I get, I guess it's one of those things when. Yeah.
On a difficult day. It's not one, it's not just one thing that goes, goes bad. Yeah. It's when bad whether that one of the ramp, one of the ramps breaks down or aircraft get stuck. You know, it's when two or three things happen, right?
[00:13:15] Speaker B: Oh, yes, yes. Snowballs. Yes. You need to be able to help if you've got an offsider and you need to be able to bounce off each other and if you become tied up, you need to be able to delegate and have that other person be receptive and also do the same for them. And yeah, when, when that goes well, it can make all the difference in managing whatever incident or delays that you're dealing with.
[00:13:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
It sounds like you relish, it really does.
[00:13:50] Speaker B: What was that? Sorry?
[00:13:51] Speaker A: It sounds like you relish your job. It sounds like you really enjoy it.
[00:13:54] Speaker B: Thank you. Yes, yes, I really, I do enjoy it. It's been about a year now, a little bit over a year and learning something new every day. So I really enjoy that and really, really enjoy getting to communicate with the stakeholders and get to be part of that troubleshooting piece.
[00:14:11] Speaker A: Cool. What would, what. In the years since you've been doing it, what do you think your biggest learnings are?
[00:14:19] Speaker B: Well, I think what I said about multitasking and prioritising moment earlier, that's definitely been something that it's certainly. Well, I wouldn't say it's unique to the role, but it is very critical and important in this space to be able to do that effectively. And obviously when you're new to a role, you're figuring out what takes precedence and what needs the most attention quicker, quickest. And my biggest learning would be how to manage that and what that looks like and how it's done effectively. I think I used to anticipate everything gets done now, now, now, especially if it's important. But there's a, there's a way to do it efficiently and safely and in a time critical manner that isn't entirely stressful, if that makes sense. I'd say, yeah, my biggest learning is mastering that balance.
[00:15:19] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's interesting. I think Often I'm minded, so I do surf, life saving and I know you see a few things, but I know whenever you see sort of paramedics arrive at a beach, if someone's. Yeah. If someone's had a sting or a suspected injury, the paramedics don't run, you know, they're. They're calm and they walk and they're measured. They're not panicking or kind of, you know, or sort of dramatic, if you know what I mean. And it sounds a little bit like that. You've got to have a calm. You have, you know, you've got to be calm and composed and assess the situation as it evolves and make sure. And make sure you're making the right. The rational decisions and. And then they're going to keep changing, aren't they as well, potentially the priorities.
[00:16:06] Speaker B: Yeah, they do, yeah. You have to be a person who can handle a dynamic environment and that fluidity.
[00:16:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I love it. Dynamic.
That's a dynamic environment. Yeah, I love that. What a great expression. A great expression. Yes. So you're. You're clearly enjoying it, which is lovely to hear.
[00:16:27] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, I do.
Ever since my first role with Virgin, I really relished working in the airport.
Adelaide Airports is obviously a beautiful place to work and be, and I'm very glad that I've been able to return in a similar capacity. But obviously now with the airport directly themselves.
[00:16:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Because for listeners who've not been there, not been lucky enough to go through Adelaide Airport, it's a rather shiny new airport, isn't it? I think it's. Is it? Certainly it's been there was a big part of it reopened recently or a new part of it.
[00:17:07] Speaker B: Yeah, we are definitely having some new works take place. So, yeah, if you were to walk through the terminal, you'd get a real sense for how different it's looking in recent times. And yet obviously the northern space of the airport, that's a few years ago now, but it's all looking quite beautiful.
[00:17:32] Speaker A: What's the least favorite part of your job, Steph?
[00:17:37] Speaker B: I don't actually have a least favorite. I've come to like it always. Just that there's some parts that I'm probably more used to as I encounter them more frequently. I think that I'll just be leaning back on that answer I mentioned earlier about the learning to become more adaptable as far as multitasking and prioritizing and being more fluid goes. I.
I'd say that even in my personal life as a.
Something that applies to not just My work. But other parts would be learning to be a bit more fluid and adaptable and that even if you have a plan that could all go out the window in one moment and just learning to accept that and be more dynamic and learning to think on your toes, which I've always been able to do. But obviously, as I've just mentioned, yeah, I'm, I love a good plan. I love having my cards laid out and knowing what to anticipate and how I'm going to deal with it.
And that's not something that can always happen in this role. And I've, I've learned to be okay with that and even good at it. But, yeah, that was something that definitely I had to lean into and learn in a more general sense. I hope that answers your question.
[00:18:55] Speaker A: No, no, it's, it's, it's a brilliant answer and I think it. Yeah. Even beyond your specific role and beyond aviation, as you know, I do a lot of work in leadership and executive coaching and I think.
[00:19:07] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, you do.
[00:19:09] Speaker A: To be agile, to be dynamic and to keep moving when faced with ambiguity or uncertainty or disruption. Yes, this, this, yes, this, this. The skill. They're great skills that we need, that we need for 20, 25 and beyond. So it sounds like your, your, Your roles. Been a great, Been a great training place for you to develop those, to develop that. To that. That cape.
[00:19:36] Speaker B: Oh, it definitely has.
[00:19:37] Speaker A: Yeah. I love it. That's.
[00:19:38] Speaker B: Yeah. For sure. And obviously, yeah, in a measured sense as well. Not just without thinking about it, but yeah, obviously uncertainty is always something that's going to be there. I mean, you make decisions with your best, using your best judgment. That's definitely been a.
It's definitely that part of the job has taught me something that isn't only work appropriate, but also. Yeah, my personal life. And on a personal level, 100.
[00:20:09] Speaker A: And which leads me to a couple, Couple of. Couple of last questions. So firstly, what do you do when you're not at work? Steph?
[00:20:16] Speaker B: Yeah, so I, When I'm not working, I'm either spending time with my partner or my friends. I enjoy being active. I, I like to go to the gym or when the weather permits, I enjoy going on walks and I've taken a liking to cooking, so I'm, I'm often doing that at home, just relaxing and yeah. Being with my family.
[00:20:41] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:20:42] Speaker B: And my two cats.
[00:20:44] Speaker A: Well, I'll, I'll see your two cats and raise you another one. I've got three cats.
[00:20:49] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:20:52] Speaker A: She's called Magic and she's only Got three legs. So we do the cats.
[00:20:56] Speaker B: Oh, that's gorgeous.
[00:20:58] Speaker A: What's your signature?
[00:20:58] Speaker B: That's very cute. Yeah.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: What's your signature dish on the cooking front?
[00:21:03] Speaker B: Well, they're all. All of mine, or majority of them are Italian because I learned from my mum and my grandmother. And they're. Yeah, I would say pasta checchi, which is a pasta, and chickpeas, which I know to some people might maybe not sound the most filling or appealing, but it's. It's fantastic. So. Okay, well, that would be my, My best.
[00:21:26] Speaker A: I love it. And then, and, and, and finally, finally, Stephen, what advice would you give to other young women and men who may be looking or considering or not even thinking about, not even knowing about, but maybe a bit curious about an aviation career?
[00:21:44] Speaker B: The first thing I'd say would be to not pigeonhole yourself. Don't make assumptions. If you are intrigued by the idea of, say, a role as a pilot or an engineer, but might not be mathematically inclined, as I am, I would say not to write it off as a career choice in its entirety. I'd say lean into it. And also I'd say you've got the Internet at the palm of your fingers. And while you might not like myself, I didn't know what tertiary. Not that you have to be tertiary study. But I had no idea that my degree existed until I stumbled across it and then realized that there was more aviation careers available to me than just the technical side of things. I'd say get online, do your research, look at tafe, look at university, see what's out there. Because it's not just being in the driver's seat of the cockpit of an aircraft. There's management, there's ground handling, there's freight. There's so many options available to you. And I'd say, if you can. Another thing I'd say would be try to get in touch with people who are already in that space, or perhaps someone who can facilitate a day in the life or a work experience sort of opportunity just to see it for yourself. And on a more women's focus note, I'd say don't let the fact that our industry is male dominated be what drives you away from it, because the space is changing and there is room for us and we do quite well in this space. So I'd encourage anyone and everyone to look into a career in aviation. It's very fulfilling. It's.
It's a really fantastic world to be part of.
[00:23:47] Speaker A: Love it. Thank you, Steph. Thank you for being our best friend. Thank you on the Sky Careers Podcast that just that's it's been such a such a delightful conversation. So thank you very much.
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