Airport Experience® News - Leadership Issue 2024

To hear her tell it, Kelly Campbell, executive director of aviation at Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport (LBB), essentially fell into the aviation industry. “I didn’t have a love for the smell of jet fuel like a lot of people in aviation do,” she says with a laugh. “I really just got lucky.” Campbell moved to Lubbock from her tiny hometown a couple hours away to attend Texas Tech University, where she studied finance, and where she fell in love with a local whom she would go on to marry shortly before graduating in 1997. “We were looking to stay in Lubbock and both working in banking, but the local bank we worked for wouldn’t allow us both to work full-time, so I set out to look for other jobs in finance,” Campbell says. She first did a stint in student housing at Texas Tech, and while she enjoyed the job, she feared it wasn’t as stable as she would like. “I was just 24 or 25 years old and there was a lot of volatility in that job, a lot of buying and selling, and changing companies,” she explains. With this in mind, she applied for two jobs with the city of Lubbock. “I thought, ‘the city is stable— they’re not going anywhere,’” she says. One of those jobs was an accountant position at LBB, which Campbell was offered in March 2001, marking the beginning of what would become a long and rewarding career at the airport. “I just grew to love it,” she says. In September 2003, she was promoted to deputy director of finance and administration, and in April 2014 she became executive director following nearly a year as interim director. “It’s funny, I had applied for two different jobs with the city, and two years after beginning the accountant role, the other job that I had applied for was part of a reduction in force, so I wouldn’t have had

Above, Right: LBB’s remodel is Campbell’s greatest achievement to date, and she’s looking forward to continuing to enhance the terminal, including an upcoming extension of the taxiway and cargo apron and ongoing mechanical and electrical improvements.

that job for long,” she says. “So, the stars aligned. Somebody was looking out for me.” Campbell may attribute the beginning of her aviation career largely to luck, but it takes a great deal of hard work, dedication and talent to flourish as she has in the industry. Her leadership at LBB, which has included overseeing a complete upgrade of the terminal, coupled with her active involvement in the industry at large have earned her the honor of being named Airport Experience News’ Director of the Year in the small airports division. Modernizing LBB With 23 years at LBB under her belt, Campbell has a lot to be proud of. “Every time we see somebody who’s worked at Lubbock and has gone on to have a great career and be promoted up through the business, that makes me proud,” she says. And then there’s the capital improvements to the airport, including $100 million in runway projects and a new rental car facility. But Campbell’s greatest achievement to date has been the terminal building remodel, which completed in 2022. “I am rarely out visiting with people that don’t say how much they love the remodel – it’s just had the biggest community interest and impact,” she says.

LBB opened in 1976 and although work had been done to it over the years, there had never been a complete remodel. “One of our former mayors actually described the building as a well-loved and well-maintained ‘70s leisure suit,” Campbell says. “It was obviously designed for a different day and age in air travel: The screening checkpoint was in the middle of the building, baggage claim was on each end, and we had these brick pavers that were the floor, obviously installed at a time when people didn’t have wheels on their luggage.” The remodel project, which took about five years from design to completion, brought the 200,000-square-foot airport firmly into the 21 st century. “We wanted to first and foremost to change the flow of the building,” Campbell says. This involved relocating and enlarging the security checkpoint and relocating and consolidating the baggage claim area. In addition, the terminal received a new roof, improved HVAC and mechanical systems, enhanced plumbing infrastructure, and all new restrooms, plus aesthetic improvements, including new flooring. “We now have something user-friendly that you can drag your luggage on without sounding like a freight train coming through,” Campbell notes.

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AX NEWS DECEMBER 2024 / JANUARY 2025