John Holland-Kaye, CEO Heathrow Airport: “I want to take Heathrow from being one of the best airports in Europe to being one of the best in the world, and we do that by delivering a really fantastic experience for passengers.”
John Holland-Kaye’s background prior to joining Heathrow, while not directly in the aviation sector, does contain a wealth of very relevant management and construction industry experience. He was previously Divisional CEO with Taylor Wimpey PLC – one of the UK’s largest house builders, having held a number of positions including Operations Director of Taylor Woodrow Developments and Commercial Director of Taylor Woodrow Inc. Before that, Holland-Kaye was Managing Director, National Sales Division, of Bass Brewers, and has also worked as a strategy consultant with LEK Consulting for a number of high-profile businesses.
Joining Heathrow as Commercial Director in May 2009, he was responsible for a 30% growth in retail income, as well as an improved passenger experience. Holland-Kaye then became Development Director in November 2012, and was responsible for delivering the £1 billion (€1.3bn) annual investment in transforming Heathrow, including the new Terminal 2: The Queen’s Terminal, which opened in June.
He is clear about his overriding aspirations as CEO, which are “to improve Heathrow as much in the next five years as we have in the last five years”, and to make the airport “Europe’s hub of choice”.
Key to this is an enhanced passenger experience, and a few minutes in Holland-Kaye’s company confirm his drive to deliver that. The new Terminal 2 is an embodiment of that vision, providing “a quick, simple, and consistent journey, that puts passengers in control of their time”. Indeed, part of the philosophy is that Terminal 2 can deliver a quick and streamlined quality of experience akin to that of a small-scale airport, while still providing passengers with the connectivity of a leading international hub. “It’s also making sure we tailor our services for different types of passengers, because families have different needs to business passengers, and we must ensure a seamless flow for them,” Holland-Kaye added. “And we’ve pioneered a lot of these things within Terminal 2. There’s more that we can do, and I also want to extend that across the other terminals, and make sure that, no matter which terminal you’re flying from at Heathrow, you feel like we have thought about your needs.”
Strengthening Heathrow’s connectivity
The co-location of the 23 Star Alliance member airlines, as well as Aer Lingus, Virgin Little Red and germanwings, in Terminal 2 is a strength of the airport’s connectivity, enabling much quicker connections for transiting passengers. The ongoing development of the airport is also making it much more attractive to the airlines, with Air China having increased its daily Beijing service to twice-daily after moving into the new Terminal 2. The connection is a very important one for Heathrow and the UK.
Holland-Kaye has entered the role of CEO at an interesting time, and, as the decision of the Airports Commission in 2015 edges ever closer, is leading the approach to demonstrating that Heathrow is the right choice for new runway capacity in the UK.
“Airlines like Air China could have four or five daily services to Beijing – and if you think about where all the growth is going to be in the world, it’s going to be in distant markets like China, and North and South America,” he said. “The problem is that we don’t have enough landing slots for Air China to fly four or five times a day, so we’re going to be missing out on growth by not having enough runway capacity.”
The passenger experience is at the very heart of the Heathrow strategy, and Holland-Kaye was on-hand to greet passengers on the day the new Terminal 2 opened.
Under Holland-Kaye’s leadership, Heathrow’s transformation will continue; the next stage will see the closure and demolition of Terminal 1 next year, and the beginning of works to double the size of Terminal 2, due for completion in 2019. “Then we’ll close the old Terminal 3, and at that point we will have a completely new airport,” he explained. “The most modern and efficient, most passenger-orientated airport in the world.”
As our conversation draws to a close, Holland-Kaye confides one final word on his ambitions for the world’s busiest international airport: “I want to take Heathrow from being one of the best airports in Europe to being one of the best in the world, and we do that by delivering a really fantastic experience for passengers.”
