Pittsburgh International Airport CEO Career, What Passengers Don’t See

That is an as-told-to essay primarily based on a dialog with Christina Cassotis, CEO of the Allegheny County Airport Authority, which operates Pittsburgh Worldwide Airport and Allegheny County Airport. This story has been edited for size and readability.

I by no means considered working at an airport ever.

My dad was a army fighter pilot within the Vietnam Battle after which bought recruited by Pan Am World Airways, so he could be flying to essentially thrilling locations around the globe whereas my pal’s dad and mom had been coming house from dinner each evening. My dad was in Dhaka, or Buenos Aires, or Tokyo. So, in a really small New Hampshire city, I had this large view of the world.

I come from a PR background and ended up working at Boston’s Logan Airport early in my profession for nearly 5 years. Via a mission, I met the proprietor of a consulting firm who recruited me, and I spent the following 17 years consulting for airports around the globe. Within the US, I used to be very centered on how airports might assist appeal to extra airways and the precise airways, and in Europe, I used to be actually centered on doing due diligence for infrastructure traders.

In 2014, I bought recruited to see if I might be thinking about working Pittsburgh International Airport. I initially stated no. I had just lately gotten an MBA from MIT, and despite the fact that I liked consulting, I actually needed an operational function. And I actually needed a spot the place I might show the thesis which you could run a extremely good public utility like a enterprise.

After I took the job, I actually did not come to run the airport. I got here to alter the business within the US.

An airport is sort of like a small metropolis

There are not any common days. This job is nice for people who find themselves actually comfy with lots of uncertainty. Issues occur each day. We have now to function 24/7, 365. Individuals rely on us for that.

I’d say 50% of my job is reactive and 50% is proactive. I’ve conferences with my workers and one-on-ones with my direct studies frequently. We cowl what everybody must know is occurring. The coordination and dependencies are not any joke.

Through the busy holiday travel season, we pay lots of consideration to prepping for winter operations, prepping our snow crews, ensuring we’ve got the correct amount of chemical substances for plowing runways, and caring for roadways and pedestrian areas.

On any given day, you would have a safety incident, and that adjustments the tone and tenor of the day. We’re ready for many uncertainty, and we prepare for it, we drill for it, and we’ve got communications able to go for it.

There are plans and techniques in place so we’re prepared for each situation. We have now our personal fireplace division on our group. They reply each day to most likely three or 4 incidents that might be lifesaving incidents within the terminal. It is nearly like we’re a small metropolis. There’s an unbelievable community of people who’re prepared each day for one thing to go sideways.

Numerous what goes on at airports occurs behind the scenes

There’s lots that goes on that passengers do not see or discover. In some methods, I believe that is a credit score to the groups that make it look simple.

We’re working a complete baggage system, and that baggage system has to work. When it breaks down, then our discipline upkeep crews should go and put luggage on carts and assist the airways transfer them as a result of the amount is just too large.

We’re accountable for plowing the runways and conserving the roadways clear, and ensuring that the grass is reduce within the spring and summer time in order that we do not appeal to wildlife. We have now a wildlife administrator, as a result of you may’t have wildlife in an airport. We do not need birds. We do not need individuals feeding stray cats. We have now a cybersecurity group.

The toughest a part of my job is actually individuals making assumptions as a result of they do not know how the airport operates or what we’re getting completed each day. I believe a standard factor that’s ignored is that the airport is definitely separate from the airways. It is its personal entity. Airport employees do not get to fly totally free.

There are issues we’ve got to repair, however not all the things is as much as us. We really do not ship lots of the providers directed to the passengers. We do not fly the aircraft. We do not even get to inform the aircraft the place to fly.

Lots of people say, “Why cannot you simply get a flight to a selected vacation spot?” To which I believe, “Do you have got 150 buddies who need to go each day?” That is what it’ll take. We really should promote our neighborhood to the airways, and so we spend lots of time evaluating the air transportation marketplace for our neighborhood and all people we compete with to see how we stack up.

I really like my job, and I like fascinated about my job. After all, it is demanding, nevertheless it’s the sort of stress I am constructed for. I’m superb at managing a lot of complexity. I actually love understanding stakeholders and what they want and how you can talk with them.

We’re continuously searching for higher methods to do issues. I care lots about ensuring our workers feels engaged. Airports are enjoyable locations to work. And these are the roles I do not see AI changing anytime quickly.