"As an Aircraft Interior Technician, I work on all aspects of the aircraft interior. We make sure the chairs function properly and that the appearance of the cabin — from carpets to sidewalls to seat coverings — are all up to Air Canada'sExternal site which may not meet accessibility guidelines. standards. Everything in that cabin — we maintain it. I have always liked to pull things apart and put them back together. I’d fix my own lawnmowers. Even though my husband is a mechanic, I like to get into that stuff.

I started working for Air Canada 20 years ago in Winnipeg. The base that I worked at had closed, but I loved my job so much that I wasn’t ever going to give it up. So, seven years ago I moved to Toronto and I love it here, too. At the start of my shift, they bring an aircraft into the hangar and my team gets to work. We’ll be all throughout the aircraft but our work is zonal, so I’ll focus on a specific area and check all those finishes. I’ll do the cockpit while someone else does the lavatories and someone else checks all the overhead bins.

You never know what you’re going to do in this job — it’s different every day. You need to be detail-oriented, hands-on and have common sense. It can be a physical job, too; picking up seats, flipping them over and carrying them out. If we’re working on a really old aircraft, something where you need to replace everything — covers, carpets, tray tables — it’s satisfying to walk through that cabin again after ten hours of work and see it looking brand new.

My son started with Air Canada about six months ago, working in the same area. He’s very mechanically inclined, but I still give him a tip now and then. It’s cool that he can say he does what his mum does. It makes me feel proud."

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