Airport Experience® News - Leadership 2022

Buckingham’s Broad Reach Buckingham took over the Airport Dimensions global business at an inauspicious time. The business was growing and generating healthy returns, but Covid’s appearance coincided with her new role. “The month that I took over we invoiced £4.50. All the lounges were closed,” Buckingham says. “The only way was up from there,” she continues. “And it has been super exciting, not just the recovery of the industry, but how much our business has – grown significantly during that time, while broadening our offering. - So even though I’ve only been two years running Airport Dimensions, there’s already been a huge amount that’s happened in that time, and it couldn’t happen without the fantastic team that I work with.” The pandemic challenges notwithstanding, Buckingham says she was “really thrilled” to take on the leadership of Airport Dimensions in addition to her role as corporate strategy officer for Collinson , parent company of Airport Dimensions. “It was a coming together of the work that I’d been doing from a strategic point of view for the group in the airport space,” she says, noting that the lounge business dovetails well with the investments Collinson has beenmaking on the digital and e-commerce sides of the business. “Obviously our primary core business is our airport lounges, which people know us well as being market leaders for,” Buckingham says. “But we’ve also invested in other types of experiences in the airport, which we think a wide range of customers will enjoy.” She points to two recent openings: a lounge called Game Space in Dubai International Airport (DXB), which focuses on gaming but also offers guests food and beverage options; and sleep lounges, which the company has rolled out at DXB and at Doha’s Hamad International Airport (DOH). The company’s digital solution, Connecta, is an e-commerce and relationships management platform that airports can use to allow travelers to map their personal journey through their airport. “It reduces the fragmentation and smooths the passenger journey,” she says. “We are looking to offer not just experiences that can be physically consumed, but [to identify] ways to make the customer journey better by putting digital assets at the airport customer’s disposal,” she says. “We want to allow travelers to take the stress out of the journey as much as possible, and also maximize their own time and their

Right: Airport Dimensions operates 27 airport lounge locations in the Americas and nearly 50 globally.

own experiences at the airport. We want to put the customer in control what they want to do, whether it’s being able to buy duty free ahead of traveling and then have it ready to pick up in the lounge’ or being able to order their favorite meal or find out how long it’s going to take to get to their gate.” Knipp’s Americas Vision Knipp joined Airport Dimensions after a three-decade career at American Airlines , starting as a ticket agent and working her way up to leadership roles, running operations in the carrier’s U.S. hubs as well as seven years abroad, first running the Asia Pacific division and then jumping to the separate and larger Japan division. On her return to the U.S., Knipp was named president of the Admiral’s Club and premium services for American Airlines, laying the groundwork for her involvement in airport lounges. Deciding on an early retirement, Knipp left American Airlines but found that the more leisurely life wasn’t for her. Roughly 18 months in, the opportunity to lead Airport Dimensions in the U.S. presented itself. “I looked into it, saw the kind of leadership that was there and said, ‘I’d love to do that.’ “That was nine years ago,” she says. “I didn’t realize that it would be this exciting and grow this fast, but it’s been a whirlwind. Having started my career as a part-time bartender and working at the airport, I feel like I was in hospitality then and now I’m in hospitality at this point in my career too.” Those hospitality chops appear to be paying off. Airport Dimensions was making strong headway at the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020 - then the pandemic hit The pandemic temporarily halted the momentum, but now that airports have returned to vibrancy, Airport Dimensions is answering the demand to provide lounges and amenities to help optimize the passenger experience. “We have our own branded lounges that

we are growing organically as opportunities come forth,” Knipp says. “And in addition to our own organic growth with our own launches, we announced our partnership with JPMorgan Chase where we’re going to be building the new lounges: Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club. We’ve got various channels that we’re looking at as we grow our product.” The U.S. market is “certainly not saturated by any stretch of the imagination,” Knipp adds, noting that as airport terminals are refurbished or new ones are built, there is widespread acknowledgement that common-use lounge space is an important part of the mix. She also says gaming or sleeping experiences, digital solutions and other innovations will help define the lounge offering in years to come. Influencing the Industry As they push forward with the growth of Airport Dimensions, both Buckingham and Knipp are mindful of the opportunities they’ve had and the mentoring they’ve received along their personal career trajectories, and they’re eager to help develop the next generation of aviation industry leaders. Buckingham joined the Airport Dimensions team in 2020 but has spent more than 25 years building her career at Collinson. She began in 1995 as a business

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