Brian Ryks: The Future of Airports

Brian Ryks, Executive Director, and CEO of the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC), offers his firsthand view of the challenges airports face as they modernize infrastructure while meeting sudden shifts in passenger demand. Mr. Ryks lays out the current state of the aviation industry, the many opportunities to meet sustainability goals, his engagement with stakeholders to make airports customer centric, and reasons why he is optimistic about the future of airports and air travel.

Mr. Ryks has been working at airports since 1986, when he started his career with a position as noise technician. He was involved in the expansion of the Denver International Airport and then moved to his first job managing an airport, in Aberdeen, South Dakota. After managing airports in Duluth, Minnesota, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, he accepted his current position at the MAC, where he is responsible for the administration and management of the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport and the MAC’s six reliever airports.

Discussion Points

• Recent challenges—of which the COVID-19 pandemic was the most drastic—forced airports to live with uncertainty but also spurred a significant investment in technology and people.
• The future of airports will involve innovation, data, and technology, including real-time management of passenger flows.
• Sustainability is a key issue that airports, airlines, and their suppliers are addressing; the MAC, for example, has a goal to reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2030.
• Important sustainable technologies at airports include electrification of vehicles, renewable-energy generation, and sustainable aviation fuels, combined with efficiency solutions such as performance-based navigation.
• Government support for infrastructure is broadly popular, but the CEO still needs to build trust with governments, local communities, and other stakeholders.
• Along with infrastructure needs, airport management must meet other key challenges—for example, talent development and supply chain management—to ensure the best possible service.

Ayna Insights is brought to you by Ayna.AI—a managed service provider that combines domain expertise and transformation capabilities to create alpha—performance superior to market indices—in the industrial and industrial technology sector. Ayna.AI is a subsidiary of Fernweh Group. The host of this episode, Akshay Sethi, is Chief Transformation Officer at Dabico, a Fernweh Group portfolio company. Fernweh Group is an investment company that is adapting an engaged investor and operator model to create “segment of one” leaders in industrial and industrial technology sector.

For More Information

Metropolitan Airports Commission website: https://metroairports.org/

Brian Ryks on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianryks/

Fernweh Group: https://www.fernweh.com

Akshay Sethi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akshay-sethi-527a1a20/