Candace McGraw, the first female chair of ACI World, reveals her vision for the future of aviation, as well as how she grew passenger service at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport by 150% in 10 years.
Please describe your current role.
As chair of the ACI World Governing Board, I work with the 28 members of the board to provide leadership to the organization through a time of industry change and transition, as well as an upcoming change in leadership atop ACI. Ensuring a smooth succession this year is our top priority. We are also engaged in strategic discussions on key topics that reflect the concerns and interests of ACI’s members for the benefit of travelers and communities worldwide, inclusive of safety, environmental concerns and workforce readiness and availability.
ACI’s governance model, which fosters representation from all regions of the world, ensures new ideas and approaches, unique perspectives and regional priorities are reflected in the direction of our work as an industry. I am humbled to lead this board, knowing that ACI represents more than 95% of the world’s commercial airport operators – almost 2,110 airports across 169 countries.
Can you tell me a bit more about your role at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International (CVG) and your career history?
I came to CVG in 2009 and was fortunate to be made CEO in 2011. I have been serving in that role since then. I started my career as a municipal attorney in the law department for the City of Cleveland a number of years ago. The airport became one of my clients, and I grew to love the aviation business. I then joined the CLE [Cleveland Hopkins International] staff and took a series of roles at that airport before moving to CVG. While I only practiced law for a short period of time, the honing of those critical thinking skills has proved invaluable in dealing with the complexity of airports. Airports are such interesting businesses, and as we all know, once you are bitten by the aviation bug, you are hooked.
What are the biggest challenges so far in your role?
As the first woman chair of the ACI World Governing Board, I am particularly interested in the organization’s ongoing work around inclusion in our industry. The board is working with the management team around benchmarking to gain a baseline of the current situation. Because benchmarking has been done in several ACI regions, we can leverage that work to develop a best-practice guide to ensure that we are attracting and retaining a more inclusive and diverse workforce. While I personally believe it is simply the right thing to do, broadening the workforce pool is also a business imperative.
“Broadening the workforce pool is also a business imperative”
That ties in with another industry challenge: workforce readiness and availability. Like our colleagues in other businesses, aviation in general and airports in particular continue to be challenged by a lack of available workforce to fill all the roles we have available. This will likely be the case for years to come. Alongside our industry partners and stakeholders, ACI must continue its role as a thought leader and resource in promoting efforts and programs that are effective in championing workforce development, participation and retention in an inclusive manner. This initiative also ties with how and where automation can be used to supplement those efforts in a safe and innovative manner.
How do you plan to balance the industry’s need for sustainable operations with the increasing demand for air travel?
According to the latest ACI World Airport Traffic Forecasts 2023-2052, total passenger traffic worldwide is predicted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.3% from 2023 to 2042, reaching 19.5 billion passengers by 2042.
To meet this demand responsibly, we have initiatives such as the ACI World and World Economic Forum’s Airports of Tomorrow, which is built on four pillars: infrastructure, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), finance and innovation.
Using current infrastructure to its fullest potential and, when needed, building smart, sustainable infrastructure, is a focus for airports. Airports can play a leading role as a facilitator for sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) to contribute to their development (e.g. infrastructure, sharing expertise, providing SAF incentives).
I’m a big believer in the power of collaboration. We need to strengthen collaboration among all stakeholders to increase the availability of renewable energy and sustainable solutions. We need financing options and a regulatory framework that can de-risk and provide long-term certainty. However, all these efforts need to tie up together so that airports, airlines and suppliers are working with the same assumptions and timeline in mind.
Finally, we will have to enhance operational efficiencies through things like digitalization and autonomous technology. At CVG, we have been working with innovative technologies for a number of years as a way to upskill employees to fulfill high-value, meaningful work.
“We will have to enhance operational efficiencies through things like digitalization and autonomous technology”
How is CVG’s autonomous baggage handling vehicle demonstration progressing? What are the biggest advantages and challenges this project has encountered so far?
In January, we announced a unique partnership between International Airlines Group (IAG) and Aurrigo International (Aurrigo) to take place at CVG. Our role at the airport is to provide on-site support as the demonstration of the technology is taking place on our airfield. We are assisting with things like mapping routes for the vehicle, providing space for the team to work, introducing the partners to other stakeholders, and ensuring the airport community across our campus can learn and benefit from the program. Several years ago, we created a regulatory environment on campus to empower our tenants to explore new autonomous technologies in an effort to build a safe and more efficient campus. We’re pleased that this work will continue at our airport when the vehicle arrives this spring.
CVG recently awarded SSP America a contract to develop six food and beverage concepts. How did you curate this mix of offerings?
Our process in the concessions area has been focused on flexibility and creativity rather than issuing a prescribed RFP (tender) approach as is common in the USA. We wanted our latest round of F&B offerings to provide opportunities for both small and large concessionaires, as well as local business owners, to participate in providing an exceptional travel experience to our customers. We opted to not specify a particular cuisine in the process and rely on the expertise of the concessionaires to propose concepts that would best represent our region and delight our travelers. We decided to let the food and beverage experts guide us as opposed to our team being prescriptive.
What sort of impact has DHL eCommerce’s recent 28,500m2 distribution center had on CVG?
DHL Express is a tremendous partner at CVG. It’s had an enormous impact through the movement of express cargo through our airport, as well as an outsized impact on employment at our airport and in our community. DHL Express’s Global Super Hub for the Americas is located at CVG. DHL has invested more than US$300m at the airport since 2014; 70% of all volume that DHL Express transports in the Americas flows through our airport every night. Recently, DHL Express announced it will invest more than US$192m in capital improvements, including the construction of a new maintenance hangar.
While the distribution center in question is operated by a different division of DHL from DHL’s on-airport presence, it speaks to CVG’s growing role as an epicenter for e-commerce and logistics in the USA and North America.
We are the only dual cargo hub in North America, with DHL Express and Amazon Air’s largest operations in the USA. We are very proud that we have improved our ranking to become the 12th largest global cargo hub (up from 17th in one year), with continued growth on the horizon. Cargo volume at CVG has grown 150% over the last eight years. Our role with the cargo carriers is to support their operations and make it as easy as possible for them to grow and evolve as their business demands. We also have two development projects underway that will further enhance and diversify our cargo business – Cargo Village and Hangar Row.
How will your experience at CVG inform your new role at ACI World?
My approach to leadership is simple and works no matter the organization: define your goals, hire talented colleagues, maintain focus, celebrate successes and continually communicate at all levels. When a leader is a problem solver, advocate and cheerleader – and creates space for colleagues to do their best work – teams can achieve amazing results. With that approach, our team at CVG has accomplished transformational change over the last 10 years, growing passenger service by over 150% as well as building our air cargo footprint.
“When a leader is a problem solver, advocate and cheerleader, teams can achieve amazing results”
At CVG, we’re also focused on building meaningful partnerships. ACI is likewise engaged with our global aviation partners, such as ICAO and IATA, to ensure the voice of the world’s airports is partnered where key industry decisions are being made. As chair, it is important to me for us to continue building on our successes by remaining attentive to these industry partner relationships. Listening and understanding are fundamental to collaboration, as is concise, simple and transparent communication. The leadership of ACI knows we must continue our focused engagement with stakeholders, particularly as we transition with our director general by the end of this year.
What key projects will you be working on in the upcoming year? What are your main goals for 2024 and beyond?
I have five key goals for 2024 and beyond. I’ve already mentioned a top goal and challenge around workforce development and championing best practices in talent attraction and retention efforts that promote inclusivity. Our board leadership is also intensely focused right now on finding our next director general. Our other efforts involve work to remain mission-focused to ensure ACI maintains its position as the voice of the world’s airports. The primary duty of any board chair is to ensure that the board and management work together to advance the mission of the organization. ACI’s mission is to contribute to the safety, security and sustainability of the global aviation industry by advancing the collective interests of airports and the communities we serve. My role is to ensure focus is given to that purposeful mission to deliver results for our members and stakeholders, particularly as we head into the next ICAO assembly in 2025.
Another key priority is forging even stronger relationships between ACI World and our global industry partners. We learned a lot from the Covid-19 pandemic, but perhaps no other lesson we learned was as important as the power of collaboration. Especially in our industry, working collectively is vital. It is immensely important that ACI serves as an equal and trusted partner to ICAO, IATA and other international organizations like WHO. Whether our issues deal with safety, sustainability, health concerns or one of many other pressing needs, our aviation industry is strongest when united.
Finally, I’ll also be looking to maintain and strengthen the relationship between ACI World and its regions. ACI World can be a unifying global voice for the airport industry only if the entire ACI Federation is strong. Although I come from ACI North America, I am committed to ensuring ACI World is responsive to the collective needs of ACI Africa, Asia-Pacific and Middle East, Europe and Latin America-Caribbean. Each region is joined by common goals to ensure and promote safety, enhance the traveler experience and serve as an economic catalyst for local communities. For a federation to reach its fullest potential, each member must be a healthy, engaged partner.
Creating a profitable airport
“When I became CEO of CVG in 2011, it was clear that we had to refocus the business of the airport. A multi-year business diversification strategy became the top priority. We quickly solidified a strategic plan that leveraged our assets in order to diversify all aspects of the airport business. We concentrated on containing our costs, eliminating outdated facilities, attracting new passenger carriers, helping DHL (our largest cargo carrier) grow, focusing on a variety of revenue-generating activities, and developing our very land-rich campus. We were very deliberate in enrolling our colleagues and all airport stakeholders in becoming advocates for the airport, making sure to emphasize the economic significance of CVG for this region.
“CVG is well positioned geographically within the US, and our 7,700 acres [3,100ha] of land remain a key asset. We made a strategic decision very early to not sell our land for a one-time windfall but rather to enter into long-term leases with developers and tenants for a sustainable source of revenue. We looked at all of our available properties and analyzed the best use of each parcel, utility availability and any height restrictions. Once we had the preliminary information, we hustled to find strong partners. We tried to be thoughtful about finding a diverse mix of tenants that could also strengthen the long-term financial stability of the airport. This approach has been helpful, for instance, when we were working with DHL to expand its footprint at CVG and when Amazon Air selected us for its primary air hub.
“Our team understands the basic tenet of budgeting that we all use in our own homes: you have to generate more revenue than you spend.”
Gender equality
“Several years ago, I was fortunate to be appointed by the US Secretary of Transportation to the FAA’s Women in Aviation Advisory Board,” says McGraw. “This group not only helped to review and assess strategies for the FAA to meet its mission more successfully, but the members of our board shared best practices across businesses in our industry. At CVG, we have focused especially on the next generation – and ensuring young girls and women can see themselves in careers in aviation, whether that be through our summer camps at the airport or campaigns that showcase our women colleagues who have had success in their careers.
“I believe in benchmarking, developing an action plan based on best practices and measuring progress. For ACI, some of the strategies are already underway, but that must continue. Examples include ensuring awareness of the current situation, advocating and creating buy-in for change; developing an intentional work plan in the areas of recruitment, retention and inclusion; and making sure leaders know they must remain engaged in order to move the needle in gender equality and women’s involvement in the industry.
“Building a sustainable aviation workforce cannot be achieved without attracting, retaining and investing in efforts around gender diversity, as well as other non-traditional populations with whom we should engage. ACI’s focus on workforce development is strong. The organization has crafted several white papers providing valuable insight to our airport members, and participated in the second Global Aviation Gender Summit in 2023 and the new Global Aviation and Aerospace Skills Taskforce. The board will continue to focus on additional resources for members, providing consultation and collaboration on gender-related issues facing the industry.”
This article originally appeared in the June 2024 issue of Passenger Terminal World. To view the magazine in full, click here.
