Following the departure of John Holland-Kaye, Thomas Woldbye has taken over as CEO of Heathrow Airport. His arrival marks a new chapter for the airport with his focus on championing passenger services, sustainability and growth.
Woldbye will be tasked with overseeing the airport’s multi-billion pound plans to upgrade existing facilities over the next three years to provide and even better service for passengers, including the next generation security programme and new baggage system for Terminal 2. His mission over the coming weeks will be getting to know the airport’s stakeholders and their thoughts on how to improve the airport.
“The UK already has a hub airport that is the envy of much of the world,” said Woldbye. “As I spend my first days getting to know the colleagues and Team Heathrow partners who make it a success, I’m looking for how we can make Heathrow even better for our customers and the British economy. It’s humbling to have the opportunity to take on teh challenge and I’m excited to get started.”
Woldbye has big boots to fill in terms of his predecessor, Holland-Kaye, who served as CEO for more than nine years. The latter leaves a legacy of having transformed the UK airport into a premier global hub, developing the plan for Heathrow expansion that secured overwhelming Parliamentary approval, navigated the business through extremely challenging times during the COVID-19 pandemic and enabled the airport to recover faster from the pandemic than all its major EU competitors, all while taking a lead in pushing global aviation towards net zero by 2050.
