Airport Experience® News - Post-Conference Issue 2025

Left: Jim Szczesniak, director of aviation, Houston Airport System.

Washington National Airport (DCA), he asked Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority CEO John “Jack” Potter and the rest of the panel how they prepare their airport staff for the unthinkable. “All airports prepare for a catastrophic event, and like other airports, we rely on [the] mutual aid” of municipal agencies, said Potter, adding that airport staff and emergency services were able to quickly deploy support following the incident. Potter also emphasized that the tragedy underlined the need for the airport system to work with the FAA to clear the congested Washington DC airspace: “When it comes to the families and those who were lost, we owe it to them to figure out how we can approach this differently going forward,” said Potter. The panel also addressed the relationships between airport operations, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), discussing the challenges that have come with retrofitting pre-9/11 facilities to modern security standards. “We’re very lucky with the partnership we have with both TSA and CBP, and we’ve expanded on that relationship,” said Atif Elkadi, CEO of California’s Ontario International Airport (ONT), noting that the airport is currently in the process of expanding its security screening area, has increased its TSA Precheck sign-ups and has recently installed a Global Entry enrollment center that saves travelers a drive to Phoenix or Los Angeles. These initiatives “have really helped us with staffing – many of those officers for both CBP and TSA live closer to our airport because of affordability,” added Elkadi. “That relationship for both of those federal agencies is very important to us [...] and we’re looking forward to that continuing to grow.”

AIRPORT DIRECTOR VIEWS AXC Panel Addresses Safety, Convenience and the Passenger Experience

BY SARAH BELING

Capital improvement projects, contingency planning, concessions development, customer satisfaction – these are just a few of the tasks that airport directors must juggle as they manage facility operations. At this year’s AXC Directors Panel, airport leaders gathered to share their day-to-day and long term goals in a discussion moderated by Airports Council International – North America (ACI-NA) president and CEO Kevin Burke. Burke kicked off the conversation by addressing one of the industry’s most pressing issues – managing staff and passenger safety in the face of aviation disasters. Referencing January’s in-air collision at Ronald Reagan

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AX NEWS MAY 2025