GITTENS:

There are lots of players. I used to be CEO of Hartsfield-Atlanta. When I was in Atlanta, there were 300 people that reported to me. There were 35,000 employees at that airport. So I controlled less that one percent of the employees at that airport. But yet I was responsible for making it work. The airport has to manage essentially this city that they don’t control.

How does all that affect the airport’s passenger?

The passenger’s really not interested in your table of organization. They want this seamless journey from beginning to end. So that’s part of the challenge, as well as the joy, of running an airport.You have to make this orchestra – very few of whom report to you – sound like music.