Five Minute Feature: Niall MacCarthy

Niall MacCarthy talks to us today in our five minute feature. Up to mid April, Niall managed Cork Airport in Ireland for DAA and sat on the DAA Executive Team for the Group.  Niall is now on embedded assignment with Daa’s International arm (DAAi) as VP Operations Jeddah Airport, Saudi Arabia. A large 39 million passenger airport with plans to nearly triple in size by 2030.

Niall has held positions at the helm of ACI EUROPE’s Regional Airports Forum for the past 5 years, most recently as Chairman of the group.

Here, as he hands over the Chairmanship and takes up his role in the Middle East, he reflects on the recent Regional Airports Conference in Palermo and casts forward to the next steps for Europe’s smaller and regional airports.

How would you summarise the headline themes emerging from the recent ACI EUROPE Regional Airports Conference?

I was struck by three main themes which emerged strongly and consistently.

Firstly, the shortage of staff across multiple airports. This is endemic. We’re all working to scale up as quickly as possible, but the challenges are significant. We’re also weighing this problem against the fact that we’re looking at a faster than expected summer recovery, leading to inevitable peaks whilst at the same time facing a staffing deficit. The end result will hit both the operations of the airport and ultimately the passenger experience.

Secondly, the horror of the war in Ukraine. We’re in Europe, in 2022. And our airports are being destroyed by acts of aggression. We’re in a humanitarian crisis with huge numbers of displaced persons. We’ve never lived through an equivalent scenario in our times. The shock and disbelief is profound.

Thirdly, the need to apply our determination to be an active part of sustainable solutions for travel and aviation. We need our focus on this to be utterly unwavering in order to retain the confidence of our consumers. Our very license to operate is also bound up in this mindset and the attendant actions. The good news is that as an industry we are both aligned and active in this regard.

Are any of these issues felt particularly acutely by the smaller and regional airports?

These themes do apply across the board to some extent, but I think that the Ukraine war throws up different challenges for different airports, if not least due to geography. Poland and the Baltics for example are dealing with proximity, whilst markets such as Cyprus feel the shift in trade and travel from Russia most acutely.

When it comes to finance and economics, it’s always the case that the regional airports are pinched hard by traffic downturn due to high fixed operating costs. It’s a tall order to ‘peak up’ for more robust times when the economics have been so very punishing.

On the plus side, it’s clear that there’s a very strong pent up demand for travel, and the benefits to that for regional airports over the summer season are definitely positives.

Any surprises emerging from the discussion in Palermo?

I was struck by how consistently everyone spoke of the need to be an employer of choice as we re-staff. Attractive employment conditions and packages are going to need to be at the forefront. There’s more focus now on our human resources, our employee engagement and our benefits for them and their families than ever before.

You’ve spent five years engaged in the ACI EUROPE Regional Airports Forum.  How do you reflect on this time?

At the start of this period, our members were experiencing strong growth. Then Brexit sent a shockwave through the industry for those most dependent upon the UK footprint, but before those repercussions really took hold, we were hit by pandemic. Subsequently, we were trying to weather the storms of supply chain issues, hyper-inflation and then war. Crises used to hit in 7 year cycles. This has been constant disruption.

And yet. Still through it all we continue to trade. We continue to connect. As I reflect back, I see resilience above all else. Resilience in our determination to rebuild and, yes, to build back better each time. And we shall do so again.

Any final thoughts as you switch from the European focus to the Middle East and a very different type of business ?

Bigger picture, I’m more convinced than ever that we do not want a society without the freedom and ability to travel. It’s a prerequisite.  We know we need to get greener, and we will. But we need to remember to balance this against the need for a connected society. After the recent crises we have endured, we value this more than ever. We must all of us make our peace with this twin dynamic, and work together towards our ongoing and evolving solutions to greener aviation.