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Courtesy of YVR
Craig Richmond, CEO and President of Nassau Airport Development Company |
Vancouver Airport Services, a Canadian firm specializing in airport management, is now managing day-to-day operations at Nassau’s international airport under a 10-year contract with the Bahamian government.
Craig Richmond, 45, an executive with the firm, assumed the top post at Lynden Pindling International Airport on April 1. In that capacity, he’s the CEO and president of Nassau Airport Development Company, a wholly owned company that he manages for Vancouver Airport Services. He reports to the Ministry of Tourism and Aviation.
As part of his responsibilities, Richmond also is overseeing a multi-million dollar refurbishment of the terminal and making plans for a new terminal. Newly elected Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said he wants airport improvements to be a “priority.”
“We’ve been asked to see if we can accelerate the plan by the new government, and we’re looking at that right now,” said Richmond, a former fighter pilot who went on to earn an M.B.A., which eventually led him into airport management.
Vancouver Airport Services manages 18 airports in seven countries. It’s a subsidiary of the Vancouver International Airport Authority.
Richmond said Nassau’s airport is, in effect, “partially privatized” as a result of Vancouver Airport Services’ contact with the Bahamian government, which was signed under the previous administration.
In 2006, 12-year-old Vancouver Airport Services had revenues of $289 million and passenger traffic from the airports it manages totaled $22 million.
The Nassau airport, the Caribbean’s fourth busiest, handles 50,000 take-offs and landings per year and receives 3.3 millions passengers. Nearly 5 million tourists visit The Bahamas annually.
Richmond said a $10 million upgrade of the terminal is now underway – everything from refurbishing washrooms to fixing fire hydrants. “There’s 45 separate projects,” he noted. In addition, he’s preparing plans for the construction of a new terminal, which is scheduled to be open by 2012.
Altogether, the work will run from $250 to $300 million. Financing is being raised from capital markets, and “typically, we’re over subscribed when we go out for financing,” Richmond said. In addition, funding will come from security fees going into effect on July 1: $7 for international passengers, $5 for domestic ones.
“Governments look at the capital required to run an airport, and it can be quite a lot of money, especially for a small country,” Richmond said. “So, it’s really good to get a company to do that for them.”
In the Caribbean, Vancouver Airport Services operates nine other airports besides Nassau’s – six in the Dominican Republic, one in Jamaica and two in the Turks and Caicos.
The Vancouver firm does not handle security or crash-fire rescue operations for the Nassau airport, though it consults on such issues.
In addition to Richmond, four other executives from the Vancouver firm manage Nassau’s airport. “Three of five of us, within five years, have to be Bahamian,” under the firm’s contract, said Richmond. Accordingly, his firm must train qualified replacements.
In the future, the Vancouver firm may go on to manage other airports in the Bahamian archipelago. “We’re in this for the long haul,” said Richmond, who joined the Canadian Air Force when he was 17-years-old and went on to fly CF-104 Starfighters and CF-18 Hornets for ten years in Canada and Europe.
Although “Richmond” was his call sign in the air force, he was known as “Plumber 13” when he was vice president at Vancouver International Airport. The name had egalitarian origins, for Richmond made it a point of spending several days a year working along with shift workers in operations and maintenance.
The purpose of this exercise, he said, was to “get to know as many people as possible and because maintenance crews at airports are the often unsung heroes of keeping the aviation system working.”
He continued, “My ‘Plumber 13’ moniker came about because as a vice president I spent several 12 hour shifts working as a plumber’s helper with maintenance — doing every dirty job from fixing fittings to unplugging toilets. People started jokingly referring to me as “Plumber 13” over time.”
At his going away party last year, maintenance teams presented Richmond with a present: A toilet plunger. And the ‘Plumber 13’ moniker was retired, as well.
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