Manchester and Stansted airport bosses in job swap
THE bosses of Manchester and Stansted airports are swapping jobs in a bid to put their skills to best use as each site deals with a major project.
Andrew Cowan, chief executive of Stansted Airport, will swap with his opposite number at Manchester, Ken O’toole, in September. Manchester Airports Group (MAG) owns both sites. Before joining the company in 2013 as chief operating officer, Mr Cowan was group chief executive of Robertson Group, one of the largest independently owned construction, infrastructure and support services companies in the UK.
The airport’s owners see this experience as important as Manchester Airport begins a £1bn programme to build a new terminal so that it can make better use of its two runways.
At Stansted, meanwhile, Mr O’toole, who has been boss of Manchester Airport since 2013, will work on a project to make better use of the existing runway and increase the airport’s capacity to 44 million passengers a year.
Stansted recently passed 25 million and its capacity is currently capped at 35 million.
In particular Mr O’toole will focus on developing the site’s route network, which recently saw flights to New York and Boston added. Prior to joining MAG, Mr O’toole spent six years with Ryanair, initially as head of revenue management and latterly as director of new route development.
Charlie Cornish, chief executive of MAG, said both airports were “about to embark on significant periods of development and investment” and that Mr O’toole and Mr Cowan were the “right people to lead them during this critical time”.
Mr Cornish added that the company had handed the newly created role of chief of staff to Collette Roche.