Airport Experience® News - Post-Conference Issue 2026

Left: Chad Makovsky, aviation director for the City of Phoenix and Doug Kreulen, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority.

Makovsky and Kreulen Keeping customers happy was also top of mind for Chad Makovsky, aviation director for the City of Phoenix , which operates Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) and Doug Kreulen, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority , operator of Nashville International Airport (BNA). To earn the designation of “America’s Friendliest Airport,” Makovsky and the team at PHX consistently survey their customers for feedback. “We ask that very question, ‘How do you rank us in terms of our friendliness? And we get really high marks there,” said Makovsky. “We decided to coin the phrase, not only because that’s what we’re hearing, but also because we knew that this would be a little bit contagious. We have 47,000 employees on our airport campus, and when people hear that they’re a part of being ‘America’s Friendliest Airport’, they want to live up to that ideal.” The team at BNA hopes to relieve passenger stress by reducing the time it takes to get to and from the airport through The Music City Loop, a new project that will create a high-speed underground transit system from the airport to downtown Nashville, said Kreulen. And at PHX, passengers have embraced the ease of Waymo autonomous rideshare services so much that a temporary stop in service resulted in significant feedback, said Makovsky. “It actually ended up being a news story, because the customers have enjoyed [it] so much,” he said. “It’s fun to dabble in these new technologies and see how the community embraces it.”

don’t differentiate whose employees are whose – everybody is an airport employee,” said Higgins, adding that her team works to communicate a “high expectation for the entire team.” Reynolds and Patel Directors Charlene Reynolds of John Wayne Airport (SNA) and Mookie Patel of San Jose Mineta International Airport (SJC) commiserated about the challenges of standing out from the crowd in the competitive Southern California airport market. “I’m managing to set expectations about the economic value of my airport,” said Patel. “People love our airport – it’s simple, it’s easy,” but there’s a lot of trying to build brand value in the Southern California market, he added. Reynolds cited convenience as a key selling point for SNA. “When I go out

to the community and/or I’m traveling, I meet people who say, ‘I love John Wayne, it’s easy to get in and out of,’ and that’s a point of pride for us,” she said. “It takes all of us within the airport, from the concession staff, the custodial staff, to the TSA [staff] to make a great airport.” Managing airports means not only balancing the needs of the customer but also the needs of external stakeholders, said Reynolds and Patel. As a former chief commercial officer “my trauma is deep,” laughed Patel, who added that he prioritizes leading with empathy across all of his partnerships. “There’s a path to break through with people – with all of my [partners], not just concession partners, but with my airline partners, I like to give them a little heads up on what’s going to happen – it takes the tension out of the room,” Patel added. “At the end of the day, we’re just human. You’ve got a job to do [and] I’ve got a job to do.”

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AX NEWS APRIL/MAY 2026