# Ed Freni Reflects on Leading Boston Logan Through Decades of Change ## Метаданные - **Канал:** AviationPros.com - **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrniwMhU6Ls - **Дата:** 22.05.2026 - **Длительность:** 46:33 - **Просмотры:** 2 ## Описание Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-2xfai-1ab10f2 In this episode, Ed Freni looks back on a decades-long career in aviation leadership, discussing how crisis, growth, and collaboration defined his approach to running Boston Logan and what the next generation of airport leaders needs to get right. ## Содержание ### [0:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrniwMhU6Ls) Segment 1 (00:00 - 05:00) Welcome to the Aviation Pros podcast, the go-to platform for professionals in the aviation industry powered by aviationpros. com, the leading source for comprehensive news, insights, and data on airport operations. Whether you're focused on airport management, improvement programs, ground handling, equipment, MRO, or FBO operations, we've got you covered with the expertise and resources you need to stay ahead. — Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the Aviation Pros podcast. I'm Joe Petrie, editor in chief for Airport Business. As airports face growing pressure to balance capacity, security, and passenger experience, few leaders have had front row seat in the industry evolution quite like Ed Freni. After more than two decades with Massport, and a career that spans both airline operations and airport leadership, Freni has helped guide Boston Logan through some of the aviation's most defining moments from post-9/11 transformation to large-scale terminal modernization and sustainable passenger growth. As Freni approaches retirement from his position, we explore how that experience shaped his approach to leadership style, why relationships and daily coordination remain a backbone of airport operation, and what today's airport executives can learn about resilience, planning and uncertainty, and managing complexity at scale. All right, Ed. Well, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me today. Obviously, you've had a long and very successful career in aviation, um and you've done a lot of things, you've seen and it's, you know, been able to accomplish a lot of things with Massport. Uh more than two decades with the organization after coming from the airline side. How did this transition shape the way you approach airport leadership? Well, you know, the years of experience that I had at American um the key ones were my last 5 years when I was the general manager of the operation here at Logan. Um in those days American had the biggest operation here. We were the same size as Delta and JetBlue today. Um and you know, interesting job. Um it was the time of my life where uh I was looking to kind of get my feet more planted uh permanently here and not having to move. So, an opportunity came up where uh there was an early retirement. So, uh at that point I had already talked twice to the guy that was doing my job here uh as the aviation director and he tried to convince me to come over to the airport side. Um you know, I thought I knew everything about airplanes and you know, everything you needed to know about operations and uh didn't take long to figure out that I had a lot of stuff to learn when I got here at the airport. You know, there was a whole different side of things, but the advantage I had was I had you know, I'm working with you know, other airline managers who knew I'd done the job. So, you know, it was a distinct advantage that I had been in their shoes. Helped a lot as far as relationships and their understanding of me trying to help them because you know, they were our customer and they're the ones that we have to rely on for airport operations. So, that was really that helpful, you know, having that background, knowing you know, what they do and then working with them after we established relationships over time. Really is helpful to this day. So, I want to take you all the way back to the beginning when you took over as director of aviation. What were some of the biggest operational gaps or opportunities you saw at that time? Well, you know, I took over this job in 2007. So, I had uh prior to that been director of operations at the airport. So, um you know, we had gone through obviously 9/11. Uh was 6 years behind us when I took the position, but I was here then uh that particular day. I was only 1 year with Massport when 9/11 hit. Um but, you know, we also the whole airline industry was transitioning. You know, we had been through a number of merges um you know, up to the point where I took this job. Um the industry was kind of in a little bit of a turmoil cuz we're heading towards the um recession in 2007, 2008. Um so, there were acquisitions going on. Uh a lot of changes in the industry. So, you know, the airport needed to be ready for that. On top of all the work we had done after 9/11 to to to get this airport ready uh for upcoming businesses um the mergers and acquisitions that were going to impact the operations. So, we had to be ready. We had to make changes. We wanted to you know, make it easier for us when airlines merge so that we can move them and collocate them. So, we had to get ourselves ready with connecting terminals inside security. And on the way through that, you know, we had to make improvements to the ### [5:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrniwMhU6Ls&t=300s) Segment 2 (05:00 - 10:00) facilities that we already had. Uh and we also had to kind of develop new facilities based on those merges. You know, we had to collocate Delta, Northwest, we Continental, United, uh and then later on, you know, American, US Airways. So, those are some of the bigger ones. Southwest uh had merged um with AirTran. Uh and you know, dealing with that is not easy when you have four different buildings like we have here at Logan, four different terminals. So, you know, we really had to get ourselves ready so that we could easily maneuver around and collocate these air these airlines together. Um and only way you could do that is to kind of connect everything inside security. So, our goal was to do that. Um we haven't attained that goal completely until just now where we are have we are building what we call it A to B connector which will then connect the terminals from A all the way through E. So you can traverse going through any checkpoint and you can merge airlines and you know, move them side by side, you know, kind of with less issues than you would if you had to pick them up lock, stock and barrel and you know, locate them to another area. So yeah, I you know, we had to get the airport ready for that and we also the projections that we saw for the growth. Uh you know, we we lost a lot of business on 9/11 and we gained it back pretty quickly um once we had you know, our goal was to kind of harden the target here and make sure everybody understood the what the risks were in the world and how did we how could we do that to get the traveling public's confidence back and we had we did a lot of work up to that point and we had to continue that. Um you know, by hiring experts to learn that side of the world which none of us frankly did they knew anything about that, you know, in 2000. Um I didn't know who Osama bin Laden was or uh Mohammad Atta and then we all became security experts. Um you know, so one of the keys to that was we developed a what we call an 8:30 meeting and so every single day we meet together with all the stakeholders of the airport, all the decision-makers. Um we started it the uh on 9/11 and everybody determined that 8:30 in the morning would be a time of the day that we could meet collectively and we have religiously met every day since then. Um I think we're the only airport in the country that does that. Um we established it as a no-nonsense type meeting, but it really was based on relationships. So you know, all of those key players uh understood our mission and bought into it, and had, you know, you we really have no egos in the room. We decided it would be no nonsense. It would be information that would be relevant to everybody in the room. Wasn't a place to complain. Uh but with your relationships, you could probably take care of your business pretty quickly just by some chatter before the meeting starts and relationships that developed and talk that happens after the meeting. So, I take pride in the fact that we developed that meeting, and we still do it today, and it really has a lot to do with the success of what we've done over the years. And of course, Massport goes beyond Logan when it comes to airports. You also got Hanscom and Worcester. How does your leadership approach differ across these different airport environments that you're trying to uh you know, co-manage on this? Well, you know, you First of all, you have to have really good talented people, you know, working with you. I know you've heard these lines before, but you know, the people that we've had running the other two airports, Sharon Williams is one of them. She's one of the candidates for my replacement. Andy Davis uh runs Worcester. Um and you know, we try to kind of emulate what we're doing here at Logan, even though those airport operations is very different, but again, I think the relationships that we develop and the trust that we earn, you know, with our our stakeholders, you know, people who use our airports, our traveling public, we do the same thing in all three airports. We basically have, you know, the same theory, the same methods, and really the same approach. Um and they buy into it, they like it, and it's from the heart, you know, we believe in it. Um and you know, we just try to be consistent uh with all three airports, depending on whatever business. So, Worcester has commercial service, Hanscom doesn't, but Hanscom has a tremendous jet GA activity, general aviation, and it's a reliever for Logan Airport. So, all key, we meet together, we talk with each other on a regular basis, and um that's kind of way you know, [clears throat] we've managed over time. Now, I want to go back to what you're talking about with being at Logan on 9/11, uh just being absolute front line of, you know, easily the biggest tragedy that's ever happened in, you know, aviation in ### [10:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrniwMhU6Ls&t=600s) Segment 3 (10:00 - 15:00) the world, the United States' history as well. Uh just that being said, I mean, you mentioned the meeting, the morning meeting, everything like that. How did this day fundamentally change your perspective on airport operations and responsibility? It was incredible. Uh day that will never forget. Uh I'll never forget. I was the senior manager on duty that day. Um the person that was in my job was up in Montreal at a industry uh convention. And some of the other leaders of Logan were there with him. Uh so, you know, we really had to, you know, get our act together uh with all what was going on. Um many different agencies converged on this airport, as you probably know. You know, we had FBI, uh CIA, uh locals, you know, government officials, uh military, uh and we really had to kind of, you know, work with that and the and not lose the confidence that, you know, we had lost immediately. Uh we were the second last uh airport to re-reopen. Uh it was about four days. It took us a little longer cuz of the proximity of our parking garages and so forth that we had to clear out and do things. Um we had to face reality big time. Um we all realized what we had to do, and we all grouped together and made it our mission to make sure every everything we did was was concentrating on the safety and security of the users of the airport. So, we made we had a significant investment. Um we were the first uh airport to have inline screening. W- was congressional mandate, but we did it first. Um and we put miles and miles of baggage handling uh uh tracks and so forth in the airports to isolate bags and we just concentrated on that. In the meantime, we you know, we wanted to make sure people were uh comfortable, you know, coming here. We tried to make it as easy as possible and greet people. Um we had a large a large um you know, sense of of safety. Um you know, we increased our presence with our law enforcement. Uh a lot of visibility and um really concentrating on making people comfortable. So, and then we just we've kept that along the way as we've grown, as we've built new areas of the airport, you know, we opened places and and opened different terminals and we have W- What we have in mind is efficiency, safety, and security. And you know, we try to make the traveling public safe and secure. I guess I keep saying that, but that was what kind of our focus was. Mhm. Things change, you know, tech- technology changed. Our systems were all done uh you know, and then the evolution of the TSA, uh which we were advocates, you know, of federalizing, you know, that work at the airports. Um you know, when we saw that evolve, you know, and you know, we we really kind of standardized and unified and did everything we could to support the TSA to this day. I don't know if you're aware of this, but during this whole shutdown period, both the 41-day shutdown and the 44-day shutdown, we never had the lines that you may have heard about through the country. Uh in fact, you know, we have information that shows that we were the best performing airport as far as wait times were during the shutdowns. In fact, our wait times really didn't get any worse. In fact, some days during this shutdown, they improved. Um and so I you know, I can't say Joe how many times I get text messages from friends, uh others that you know, how long are the lines at Logan? And I continuously say in the last 44 days, there are no lines. And that's all about the relationships that we have TSA and that we've developed with them. They meet with us every morning, too. Um you know, their leadership, their FSD, their deputy FSD, their leadership, they meet at 8:30 with us. We talk about what's going on. Um we you know, we talk about details of staffing issues and we support them. We supported them during the shutdown, as well. So, tell me, in the immediate aftermath of an event like 9/11, what were some of the most difficult operational decisions you had to make that people on the outside might not fully understand? Well, there were a whole bunch. I mean, we we actually hired an expert from Ben Gurion Airport. Um and and you know, he made suggestions that you know, we adopted. Um most of us were wide open and ready for that anyway, you know, because uh we were always focused on the operation, making sure everything went smoothly, you know, bags got screened and people got in airplanes and like I said, nobody knew who Bin Laden was. So, yeah, we've done you know, awareness training here. Uh we we adopted the mantra of ### [15:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrniwMhU6Ls&t=900s) Segment 4 (15:00 - 20:00) see something, say something. We've embedded that in the way we do business here. The traveling public would see more visibility. Uh we adopted, you know, we have uh patrols with long guns that walk around the airport, like you used to see just in the Europe or in South America, but now you'll see a number of airports, but we adopted it right away. Uh canine units around and out, you know, we just wanted to make sure that the traveling public felt that they were secure. Uh on top of all the other things that we do to you know, to make it easy, but we you know, we want to have a clean facility, a safe facility, and an efficient facility, and everybody's got that in their head. Everybody walks around in leadership looking for that and correcting that if they see something that needs to be fixed. So, we just keep that position and it works. And you mentioned it about having the morning meeting every single day 8:30, um you know, coordination, you know, communication, all those things with these different stakeholders. That kind of being said, I mean, how did this experience shape Massport's long-term approach to security, resilience, and coordination with its federal agencies? Well, a couple things happened. Uh you know, our board was embraced, you know, everything that we suggested and learned and wanted to kind of fix uh by you know, funding the things that we needed to do to improve and harden the target. So, that was one step. The other is as I said, um we work hand-in-hand, particularly like with the TSA. I think we're the probably the only airport that has TSA leadership uh on the same floor in a building here at the airport with our operations people. So, we work in side-by-side, same floor, offices next to each other. Um so, we've integrated and incorporated you know, all those different things. We have a joint terrorism task force that's here that we've incorporated into our way of doing business on a daily basis, which we know each other. Um so, we've helped support, you know, FAMs that come through here, federal air marshals, you know, the TSA officers, um the state police. I mean, the state police have been incredible. They're our law enforcement here, Massachusetts State Police. Just their presence in uniform. Um and all those organizations work together. In fact, Massport has its own police force Uh that's primarily over in the seaport area. But we'll use them on details here at the airport and they've bought into what we do here. And they do the same thing over at the maritime unit where they handle cruise ships and um and cargo ships. Uh and there's a fair amount of property over in the seaport that Massport owns and operates and the state police are the um law enforcement jurisdiction there. So, everybody knows everybody. Everybody knows the major. The major has a direct line report to me and the colonel. Uh and we work very closely with the leadership in the Commonwealth. Boston PD and their leadership. Um our fire rescue groups uh work with our cities that are that surround our airports um for mutual aid. We go in both directions. They help us when we need uh some issues and we they train with us and we do the same with the cities that surround the airport for mutual aid where we're able to you know, our firefighters out to help close by. Um in in community relations you know, it's huge. You know, we try to you know, communicate closely with the community as as we start to develop things. Uh you know, we built runways, we built taxiways. We don't want to you know, make it any difficult more difficult for any of the our you know, people that live around the airports. So, we you know, we've had um you know, we have programs where we've helped you know, with their houses you know, in the contours of noise contours and we've done that program with the FAA and we've done everything we can to kind of help with the communities that surround our airport. So, it's a relationship that goes far beyond the walls of the terminals here at Logan. Uh shifting uh looking over the course of your career, uh Logan has gone through a significant modernization. Uh what projects or initiatives do you think are the most lasting on the operational impact? Well, I think the improvements we've made to the terminals, aside from the airfields. You know, the airfield is is still in great shape. You know, we did make we put a center field taxiway in years ago that, you know, gets airplanes out to the takeoff areas quicker and back off the landing areas faster than the terminals. We did commission a new runway in 2006, which was a short runway, but it helped in operations after we'd have a northeaster here. When the wind shift, we needed a runway to take some of the smaller airplanes out of our mix. Those have been significant improvements on the airfield. Around the terminals, you know, we um we did a makeover in terminal B, which was incredible before my existence. They ### [20:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrniwMhU6Ls&t=1200s) Segment 5 (20:00 - 25:00) called it Logan Mod. Massport had done a section of terminal E, and then just recently in the last 5 years, we built on that and then put a new terminal in it. You know, I don't know if you've ever seen it, but has the red roof. Looks like a spaceship. It's one of the nicest terminals in the country. Very efficient to help with our growth in the international business, which is about 90% of our business. Um you know, we've collocated, you know, the airlines that have merged and and acquisitions that have taken place. Um we are in the process right now of building a transportation center across from terminal E that will make it more efficient. Um you know, you remember the onslaught of the Uber and Lyft world, you know, when it took over all the roadways and, you know, I think most airports were overwhelmed by how fast that that business took. You know, we had to react to that. We had to find places that made it easier for the Ubers and Lyfts to operate in closest they could get to our terminal front doors. You know, we have a lot of congestion around our roadways. We fixed our roadways, upper level roadways. Um, and you know, we're continuing that with this new transportation center that we're building. Uh, we built a rental car center in the last 15 years, uh, which is very close to the terminals, which we have isolated both arrivals and departures so that they're not merging when they go either drop off or pick up their vehicles. Uh, very efficient area that we built. We put two hotels on the property. We have a Hilton hotel that has 650 beds. We have a Hyatt on side of the airport that has 250 beds. Um, you know, we've done terminal A was brand new greenfield build uh, after 9/11. Uh, I already talked about B and especially after um, when United and um, American merged, we did a great hall there and did that whole area over and connected. Uh, when United and Continental merged, we connected terminal B. I don't know if you're aware of it. Terminal B is got a parking garage between it, but it is connected. So, it's got one side, two sides of the building. Um, so we've improved all those areas. Um, we're in the throws of of trying to improve uh, our oldest terminal right now, terminal C, which is primarily housed by JetBlue. Um, there's a lot of work that we want to do in there and we're finding ways to fund that and get that going. Um, our footprint is only 1,500 acres. So, you know, we've built on just about every square feet uh, foot of of this airport. And hopefully in an efficient and a user-friendly way um, with what we had to work with. Um, there are still a lot of work to do. There's being done. Uh, and you know, this it be goes on. Um, you know, we've been able to kind of uh, accommodate the growth, uh, you know, I mean we last the last two years we've had over 44 million people use Logan in and out. Uh you know, we're in the mega category uh of airports. Um we're in the top 16 airports in the country as far as, you know, the passenger activity and airport operations. So, um and we're getting ready for further uh growth or demand uh and trying to do that responsibly, you know, with the environment um knowing that that's very sensitive for the surrounding communities and the and the state itself. So, we're doing everything with that in mind and trying to accomplish our goals and continue with this rebuild. Um but it's just all hacks. Every time you do something new to the Logan Airport, you know, it's been here 100 years and um you know, we've we've been able to maintain this place and improve it uh so that you know, the traveling public uh you know, our ratings have gone up, you know, I think you know, it's a tribute to what the board has funded and how we've built this place. Um and but again, the work continues. You know, there's there could this demand, you know, is going to go Fabio on 44 million at some point. Um and so we've done the things that we need to do and we need to think beyond that, you know, for you know, future. Airports today are balancing capacity, passenger experience, and security in new ways. What has become the most difficult to manage more than it was 15 to 20 years ago? Uh you know, our problems uh are congestion around our roadways. Uh so, you know, managing traffic uh you know, is has been a continuous problem. Um but you know, I think we've done a pretty decent job. Um you know, when the Ted Williams Tunnel was built, it really helped Logan Airport, you know, with that traffic problem, but we really have only three outlets to the gateways when we're at our ### [25:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrniwMhU6Ls&t=1500s) Segment 6 (25:00 - 30:00) heaviest traffic and that's one A north, the Callahan tunnel Sumner Tunnel Callahan Tunnel, and the Ted Williams Tunnel. So, we really have to staff roadways properly so that we get traffic moving so we don't have gridlock. That's one of our bigger problems. Once you get into our terminals, you'll be pleasantly surprised that the TSA staffing has been adequate or better. And our wait times have always been historically as good as they can be and best in the country. We help the TSA whenever we can. If we can help people divest, we try to make a pleasant experience. When things don't go right, you know, we have backup systems that we use with our canine units. We work very closely with the TSA. Even they have their own canine units. So, inside the terminals, the traffic you know, the foot traffic flow is pretty good. It could be improved, but you know, I think the one thing that lacks here, which really it's a little too late is kind of a people mover situation where you can you know, get people moving. You know, if you if you really step back and thought that you know, there was a way to improve Logan, it would almost be to rebuild the whole thing and that you know, that would probably be an impossibility, but you know, you wouldn't build a parking garage in the middle of an area that you could probably develop a you know, something like a um a consolidated check-in process where you could kind of tram people out to the security areas. Um We thought about that, but it was too late, you know, with the Logan mod in the '90s. Immediate decisions had to be made and just to you know, handle the traffic. So, that was done. So, we had to work around that uh and we've done that, I think. Um but there's always ways to improve inside the terminals and the traffic experience with technology. You know, we've uh you know, we've embraced technology to try to give people, you know, the ability that to take a look at their travel before they leave their home. Um you know, obviously they can check in and do those things, but how do I get through terminal A, B, uh you know, C and E. You can get uh go online on our website and you can kind of map out your trip so that you know in advance, you know, what to expect. We've got a great uh public uh you know, area people uh process where we have help that will help uh those who haven't traveled that often and we try to greet them and help them through the process. Um we're forever putting out information about what's going on depending on, you know, what's happening with weather. You know, cuz we deal with a significant amount of weather as, you know, in the Northeast. So, um and we have a great snow program uh where we remove snow probably better than anybody in the country. And we've been awarded for that uh that recognition. Um again, our board has appropriated money to buy the most sophisticated equipment to remove snow and keep, you know, the air surfaces the air field surfaces clean. And those are all things we do on a daily basis, you know, keeping in mind that, you know, we want people to be safe secure and we want to do an efficient process as they go through security. So, like I said, I think, you know, if we can make improvements on the congestion in the roadways, that's one of our biggest hurdles. Um but you know, I think we've done a pretty good job handling, you know, the 44 and 1/2 million people that use this place and continue to use, I think. We've got a great menu of airlines, too. You know, we have over 40 airlines that operate here. Um and then we have hundreds of non-stop destinations uh of which I believe there are somewhere around 40 non-stop destinations internationally that we offer with all the international flag carriers and all our domestic partners, you know, all the top airlines operate here. Now, one of the things I love about this industry uh I get to talk to somebody like you is the fact that you're not only just, you know, running an airport, but you're also, whenever you're traveling, you're looking at this whe- whatever airport you're at through a totally different lens than anybody else in this industry or for that matter outside of this industry as how they're looking at things. And I'm kind of curious from that operator standpoint, where do you see the biggest disconnect between how airports are designed and how they actually function day-to-day? Wow. Yeah, uh you know, it's it's I don't want to criticize, you know, I appreciate people's pain points um you know, when they get to the airports and it happens to me as a traveler, you know, where uh you know, signage and wayfinding uh through the airport, navigating yourself ### [30:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrniwMhU6Ls&t=1800s) Segment 7 (30:00 - 35:00) through the airport can be very difficult. Um it's almost a disadvantage here, particularly when you come inbound because our airplanes are 40 ft away from the baggage claim areas, you know, the way we're built. You get off your airplane and within seconds you're down at the claim area and you have to wait If 14, 15 minutes for your bag, it seems like a long time because you just got off your airplane as opposed to other airports that, you know, you have to walk, you know, half a mile to get to where your baggage claim area is. Um I guess the disconnect is uh you know, there is a way, if you want to spend the money, to make that a better process, you know? Um espe- especially when and if you're in a tough climate environment, you know, do you build your terminals so that airplanes can get underneath an overhang, you know, and have systems where, you know, baggage systems go out to the door of the aircraft and the bags come right off. Um, you know, where you're not handling bags and and, you know, crazy things happen. Um, so there's kind of a disconnect because I know, you know, most of my counterparts feel the same way, you know, I wish we could do this. But there's a huge cost to doing that kind of thing. And you have to weigh that. It's because, you know, everything you do gets reflected on the cost of the airlines to operate and the price of the tickets that they have to charge to operate out of our airport. Um, this market has been an extremely good market, you know, the Boston market has been great since I was here in '79. Um, it's always been resilient. Passengers come here. They love coming to Boston. It's a great city to visit. There's a lot going on here. I don't really have to sell Boston. I just have to make the experience of their first arrival here as good as it can be. Um, we just all try to do this basically the same thing, but it it can get very expensive. Anybody can build a terminal for $5 billion. But can any airline afford to operate out of that kind of situation? Can you capture the money that you need, you know, to turn that money back into, you know, improve the rest of your airport? That's a tough situation. So, I don't call it a disconnect. I just call it a cost of operating and the fact that you have to deal with those realities, you know, to make your airport a good airport. And um, yeah, I mean, I there's sometimes I've been in even smaller airports that, you know, smaller airports, let's say, that, you know, I have my own problems trying to figure it out, you know? Um and you know, some of the even the more efficient airports, you still some pains you have to go through, you know, to go get your rental car, you have to get in a van and go, you know, miles off the airport to get it. And then when you return it, you got to reverse that situation. Um you know, we're pretty tight here, so there's you know, you're not really going anywhere once you get here and on this campus, you know, we'll figure it out how to get you to the terminals, but you know, it's just the there's just so many different variables that make the the you know, the airport environment, um you know, how to make it perfect is a tough thing to do. Uh even if you have an unlimited budget, I don't know many airports that have an unlimited budget, you know? Um and you know, you're in an a regulatory environment and you know, you've got to play by the rules do things the right way and you know, that's tough. When you connect all those dots, you have a pretty good product, you know? Um but tough business. Yeah. Great business, though. Yeah, that is very true, absolutely. — And you've been on both sides of this, you know, we've talked before, you know, you were an airline guy and then you moved over to the airport side of things. And in that time, the airline industry has changed dramatically. I mean, that's stating the obvious, you know? And it continues to change, you know, it's very dynamic and it's continuing to evolve. I How do you When you look at this, how do you see uh the business model further evolving with the airlines for the airports as time's going to continue? That's an interesting question cuz as we as things evolve, um what I see now is pretty obvious that the big legacy airlines are trying to uh use their size to its advantage by focusing on the premium product, uh which is difficult for the kind of low-cost carriers to do. Uh, we see it here, you know, they build clubs, um, they increase the size of the premium, uh, seats in their airplanes, uh, a first-class, business-class, where some of the low-cost carriers aren't able to do that with the size of airplanes. Um, some of our domestic flag carriers that are flying international markets with their bigger airplanes ### [35:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrniwMhU6Ls&t=2100s) Segment 8 (35:00 - 40:00) uh, it's an unbelievable advantage, um, you know, to have wide-body aircraft where you have plenty of room and you can expand your cabin. So, right now, I see the industry, I think, you know, the legacies have an advantage there. Um, at least the three big ones do. Um, the biggest ones. Uh, but the others are going to struggle because their airplanes aren't made up, uh, as they fly now to offer more premium seats, a more premium product. It just doesn't start with the seats, it starts with the clubs that they're building. Um, you know, fortunately for us, we have airline clubs and we have private clubs, and people want that. You wouldn't believe the success of the clubs here at Logan Airport, and we're building a new American Express Centurion Lounge that was announced the last couple of days. Probably be 3 years before you see that built. Um, we've got a Chase Lounge, a private club now. Um, we've got airline clubs, we've got JetBlue building their own club. American's got a club, Delta's got clubs, um, and some of the internationals have their own clubs, Lufthansa, British Airways, um, Emirates. Um, and those clubs are all full. They're packed. Um, you know, and you see, you know, that the airlines that have those offerings are succeeding a little bit better than, you know, some of the other airlines. Um, you know, we've got one airline that went bankrupt twice in the same year. But that was, you know, we lost a million seats here at Logan because of that one airline, you know, unfortunate situation. And they're trying to recover still uh but they're facing, you know, that turn of events. I you know, I don't know what's going to happen in 5 years. I you know, what happens to the economy, whether that swings back. But there was a time when low ultra-low cost carriers and low-cost carriers had an advantage, you know, with the evolution of JetBlue and all the other low-cost carriers. The the legacy carriers became low-cost carriers, you know, they fought back by keeping their prices, um you know, relatively close to where the low-cost could afford to operate. But now it's swung to the premium. So, I see that, you know, as an evolution that, you know, I'm not sure everybody expected, but I think the the big three have an advantage there with, you know, and rightfully so cuz they've invested and done the things they need to do to get them in that position. Now, you have additional uh uniqueness to your role, too, just for the fact that you've even had to step in an interim into CEO of the entire Massport organization a couple years back uh while that was going through a transitional period. Tell me just going from, you know, one that to that, uh what kind of experience did that experience, what did it teach you about leading beyond aviation operations into a broader organizational strategy? Well, I'll tell you that, you know, I had a greater appreciation of what my uh colleagues, you know, faced in their world. Um I truly enjoyed it. Uh I was so much spoiled because people like Jen here and others kind of isolated me from some of the outside interference that you had to do as a CEO. I made it clear to the world that I was going to keep my aviation position. I think that was a good strategy because I was trying to run the airports and you know, take over the you know, the roles of the CEO. Board asked me to do it. I said I would, but I wasn't going to relinquish my aviation responsibilities. It was a busy time. Uh, you know, the breadth of what Massport does here uh, outside the airports is incredible. Uh, you know, when you know, I learned a lot about, you know, particularly the real estate side of our business. They've got a great leader there. We worked very closely. I got involved in a couple of big deals, which I really enjoyed. Uh, and then, you know, the maritime in area with the cruise and um, you know, Conley Terminal, I learned a lot about that. And I got very a much closer to a lot of my colleagues than I would have, you know, as I worked my job, you know, in aviation. So, it was a great experience. We accomplished our goal, that was to keep the authority moving, you know, try not to miss a a step until the board was able to find, you know, the person that would be able to you know, keep the ball rolling and uh, they did that. Uh, you know, which Davey's a great CEO. He's young, he's energetic and smart and he knows you know, he knows the political world. Um, you know, part of the a big part of that job is is to try to protect the authority against, you know, outside kind of I I'll call it interference, but you know, outside things that you know, you have to be aware of that I don't really I don't have to, you know, deal with that as an aviation director. So, yeah, I squeezed through 11 months. Um, pretty much unscathed, knock on wood. Um, but you know, there was some challenging times. You know, things happen and they happen in the other parts of the business, but ### [40:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrniwMhU6Ls&t=2400s) Segment 9 (40:00 - 45:00) overall, it's a good experience. I I think I did the job the board wanted me to do was keep the place together. Um, and set it up so that um, the CEO that was following, the one that left, uh, was coming into something that, you know, they weren't people be overwhelmed and we were able to get some major contracts done during that period. The Teamsters, our biggest union group, signed a 5-year deal during that period. We got our firefighters deal done during that period. Some of our other union groups had come forward. We had done a deal with the ILA over in the seaport. So, it was kind of a good time that for a new CEO to come in and it didn't fall apart, which is what my goal was to do. So, yeah, great experience. Would I want to do it full-time? No, not at 74 years old. I had no to you know, to keep going like that, but Jen appreciates it. I you know, I was meeting with, you know, Jen you know, handles the media and you know, that's you know, that can be challenging, especially when something happens, you know, either in the industry or outside the industry, but particularly you know, in the industry or any one of those phases of Massport's business. There are really three, you know, big uh phases and it's it's, you know, the aviation is it's uh maritime and real estate. So, I really had up-close and personal experience with those folks. They know what they're doing. It's great working with them and um this is a great organization. Happy I was happy and I'm really happy when it ended. — I can imagine. So, looking at this too is that you've seen a lot of evolution in the industry, both airlines, airports, the way things operate, the way thing people travel, just everything how it seemed to be. For the next generation of airport leaders, what kind of skills or mindset shifts are now essential that maybe weren't when you started? Well, I go back to the relationship issues, you know, where you really got to uh bring everybody in and help them and trust them and and they'll trust you. Uh you know, do the best you can with what you have and be honest, you know, about it. Uh, and speak from the heart. If you don't, uh, they can they can find a phony in a second. Um, you know, so the longevity is because you people trust you and they they appreciate the relationship. And I think that goes for new leadership as well. In this world, you've got to rally people around um that accept the mission and want to move forward and do the job and concentrate on, you know, the public and and the traveling public and what they want and need uh as technology. You know, we haven't even talked about AI, you know, how does AI play in this world and who's going to manage, you know, the AI world? Um, I'm not a big AI uh user, um, but I think, you know, that's something that has, you know, airports especially have to get their arms around and um leadership has to keep their eyes on that. But it's all about relationships, in my opinion. You know, you got to have people, you have surround yourself with great people and you got to they've got to you've got to trust them and you got to give them the leverage uh and the opportunity to make decisions whether they're right or wrong and know how to deal with them, you know, when things don't go well. Uh and you know, you don't want to bully people around and push people around. You want to trust them and believe in them and that's what I think leadership should look for. And my last question for you today, uh you've seen a lot of different things uh and obviously you're dealing with a lot of challenges today. That being said, as you're stepping away from your position, what is the one issue or opportunity in aviation that you think deserves more attention from airport leadership over the next decade? Well, I you know, I think you got to consider the environment, uh you know, and how that plays to what you're doing and I think you work with the industry. I mean, I I'm bullish because the airplanes that have been manufactured now are much more efficient and uh you know, less fuel burn and but you know, at some point, you know, the year environment is a real issue and you know, we need to kind of be aware of that and be able to do what we can uh in our industry. Um that's one thing. I mean, I think um there's always going to be challenges. You have to know the risks in the world more than you ever did uh and how that you know, plays into what's going on. I you know, you have to be ready and flexible with the cycles that you go through. They're going to continue. You know, no one knew we were going to have a pandemic. 9/11. No one expected this recession we had in 2007. You have to be flexible enough to understand you know, how to go through that roller coaster ride and maintain your sanity and you know, and make sure you've got everybody continue to be focused. I can't tell you I could tell you stories about the pandemic. If ### [45:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrniwMhU6Ls&t=2700s) Segment 10 (45:00 - 46:00) we didn't, you know, keep people focused and get ready for when we came out of that thing, we you know, it would have been a horrible situation. But everybody did, you know, and they worked through it and we managed it and if you're going to take a role like this, it's a it's a 24/7 job. Um you have to be ready. understand what's going on and you have to be committed. And if you're not, you're not going to succeed and people around you aren't going to believe in it. So, you really got to commit yourself. And you have to do it the right way, you know, with strong feelings and and attitude. Uh and you know, think keep people keep people's best interests in mind. You know, and treat them right and then everything else will fall in place. So, that's kind of the way we've managed and the way I've operated. Thanks for tuning into the Aviation Pros podcast produced by Never Business Media, a division of Never B2B. Stay ahead in airport operations and leadership by subscribing to our Airport Business Daily Newsletter and our monthly Airport Business Insider Newsletter, only available to key decision-makers in aviation. And don't forget to explore even more at aviationpros. com, the home of exclusive content for aviation professionals like yourself. I'm Joe Petrie. We'll catch you next time. --- *Источник: https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/52752*