Aberdeen Airport boss announces departure
MD Carol Benzie will step down after ten years Airport still undergoing £20m terminal revamp
Carol Benzie, the managing director of Aberdeen International Airport, is to depart at the end of the month after a decade with the business.
Benzie joined the airport in 2008 and went on to hold a series of senior roles including operations director and commercial director before being appointed managing director in October 2013.
She has overseen the expansion of the airport’s route network, as well as the single largest investment in its history, a £20 million redevelopment of the terminal.
The board of owner AGS Airports will now begin the process of finding a new MD. In the interim, and together with the airport’s management team, AGS Airports’ chief executive and former managing director of Aberdeen, Derek Provan, will oversee the business.
Benzie said: “After ten hugely enjoyable and ultimately successful years with Aberdeen International Airport I have taken the decision step down from my role as managing director.
“The airport has been a great platform to grow and develop as a leader and be so closely involved in a business that is so vital to the Aberdeen region. I am now looking forward to embarking on the next stage of my career.”
Provan added: “On behalf of AGS, I would like to sincerely thank Carol for the dedication and commitment she has shown throughout her time as managing director.
“In addition to overseeing the recent and rapid terminal expansion, she successfully steered the airport through the downturn in the oil and gas sector which impacted the wider North-east economy.
“Carol leaves the business on a strong footing and the terminal transformation is a fitting legacy to her time at the helm of the airport.”
The airport’s transformation project is a three-year development to increase the size of the terminal by 50 per cent. The second phase of the project, involving a new security search area and retail facilities, was completed on 19 June this year, with the third and final phase set to be finished by summer 2019.
Aberdeen International contributes around £110m a year to the local economy and is home to Europe’s busiest commercial heliport, which transports more than three million passengers each year to support the North Sea oil and gas industry.
AGS Airports is a partnership between Ferrovial and Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA), established in 2014. Its most recent financial results, to the year end 2016, showed a turnover of £197m. In addition to Aberdeen International, the group owns and operates Glasgow Airport, which served a record 9.9 million passengers in 2017, and Southampton Airport, which saw 2.08 million passengers travel through its gates in the same year.
hannah.burley@jpress.co.uk