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Thomas Woldbye says Heathrow shares only one characteristic with the Copenhagen airport he ran for 12 years.
“What’s different from Copenhagen? Well, apart from the fact that we have planes landing and taking off, then I think about almost everything,” the man who took over as chief executive of Europe’s largest airport in October told the Financial Times.
Running Heathrow has long been a high-pressure job, but Woldbye succeeded long-time boss John Holland-Kaye just as Heathrow faces its biggest change of ownership since the airport was privatized in the 1980s.
The 59-year-old Dane will also have to make a decision on the politically explosive question of whether to build a third runway at an airport that expects record traffic of 81.4 million passengers this year.
In November, Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial, which bought Heathrow in 2006, announced it would sell its remaining 25% stake to Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund and French group Ardian for £2.4 billion .
The news came just hours after Woldbye stepped off a Virgin Atlantic flight between London and New York, the first transatlantic trip powered entirely by sustainable aviation fuels.
That evening, as he met with Sir Richard Branson and British government officials at a lavish party, the consequences of Ferrovial’s decision became clear. Thanks to a complicated ownership structure, the exit of the Spanish group has sparked a rush among the airport’s shareholders to sell their shares, leaving 60% of the airport up for grabs.
Building a business that is “attractive” to shareholders will be one of his priorities, Woldbye said, but he insisted that potential ownership changes were not a distraction. “To be honest, it’s not something we as management spend a lot of time on right now; it’s a shareholder issue,” she said.
Woldbye, who moved to the aviation sector after 27 years at shipping and logistics giant Møller-Mærsk, including leading its global shipping and ferry divisions, is an “operational guy,” according to a person who knows him.
Heathrow will have no shortage of operational challenges. Peak travel periods around Christmas, Easter and summer school holidays can often create problems that result in mini-crises.
Woldbye brings with him a strong record from Copenhagen Airport, where passenger numbers rose 50% to 30 million during his tenure.
And its decision to swap the bigger Copenhagen airport for the “big machine” Heathrow comes as the UK airport has finally drawn a line under the crisis it has been plunged into by the coronavirus pandemic.
Heathrow this week announced it had returned to profit for the first time since 2019, forecasting record annual passenger numbers and raising the prospect of paying a dividend to its owners for the first time in four years.
A sustained recovery in passenger numbers – coupled with a potential change of ownership – means the contentious question of whether to build a third runway, which cost more than £14 billion in 2019, will be on the Woldbye agenda.
The decision will be the biggest one Woldbye will make. He has launched an internal review of the airport’s strategy and it is clear that he will take his time before making any final decisions.
“We need to make sure we get it right,” said Woldbye, who went straight from school into the world of work but gained a qualification in finance mid-career.
He has already made it clear that he will prioritize a more limited expansion focused on smaller, cheaper improvements – such as new terminals, parking lots and baggage carousels – before considering a third runway.
A senior aviation industry executive says Woldbye’s new outlook is important because he believes his predecessor has become inextricably linked to the ambition of building a third runway.
Rob Barnstone, a longtime anti-third runway activist and coordinator of the No 3rd Runway Coalition, would like the change in leadership to bring a new attitude toward expansion, but he doesn’t hold out much hope.
“There seems to be a change of tone rather than a change of heart. I suspect this will spread through the community, but it would all be in vain by the time Woldbye breaks ground on a third lead,” she said.
The other major challenge facing the airport’s new boss will be to restore relationships with airlines, damaged by years of bitter public controversy over whether Heathrow should be allowed to raise landing charges to cover losses during the pandemic. Heathrow has also infuriated some airline executives by forcing them to limit flights during a period of travel chaos in the summer of 2022 caused by staff shortages.
One airline executive said the tone between Heathrow and its customers had been “much friendlier” since Woldbye took over.
“Airlines are extremely important customers for the airport and we should treat them accordingly,” Woldbye said.
But while airline bosses were happy to trade barbs with her predecessor, they privately appreciated Holland-Kaye’s willingness to push the government for more support, both to help decarbonise the aviation industry and during the coronavirus crisis .
“While Thomas will understandably want to focus on the airport, I hope they don’t lose sight of the broader role that comes with being CEO of the nation’s airport hub,” one airline executive said.