Interview with Amanda McMillan

Amanda McMillan joined the Heathrow Holdings Group (formerly BAA) from drinks giant Diageo in October 2005, initially working at the BAA Business Support Centre (BSC), before moving to Glasgow Airport in September 2006 to take up the post of Customer Services Director. She returned to the BSC in July 2007 after she was appointed as Managing Director. Amanda qualified as a Chartered Accountant from the University of Glasgow and has spent time in manufacturing, professional practice and lecturing.

Amanda is a member of the Adam Smith Business School Strategic Advisory Board and was awarded an OBE in June 2013 for her services to business and tourism. She lives in Glasgow and has two children.

Aspire asks Amanda about her career pathway, her current role and about the challenges of managing one of the largest regional airports in the UK.

How did you get to this point in your career?

I was born in Linwood which is under the Glasgow Airport flight path which tends to prompt people to ask if it was an aspiration to work in Glasgow Airport.  It certainly wasn’t a plan. I did my Chartered Accountancy qualification with KMPG in Glasgow but I decided at that stage that I didn’t want to pursue a professional career in practice so I moved to work for a company called Devro, who produce manufactured casings for the food industry. I worked there for a few years performing a very traditional financial accountants job which included managing payroll, credit control and debt management.  I had always had a childhood ambition to become a teacher which led me to move to ICAS to became a full-time lecturer in the subject of Finance which saw me lecture throughout the UK.

I felt this was a very useful period in my life as I hadn’t much experience of public speaking and lacked confidence in that area. Standing up in front of 100 students every day certainly helped with that. I concluded that I missed business and joined Diageo which I characterise as the time where I was able to glue all my experiences together and understood better what I enjoyed doing. I liked being able to use my accountancy skills but I didn’t want it necessarily to be the principal part of my day. I enjoyed the more generic aspects of business, loved people management and I really enjoyed change. Eventually I become the Head of Diageo Scottish Shared Service Centre which is what took me to the airport business when I joined their Shared Service Centre at Hillington. Within a fairly short period of time I became the Operations Director at the airport, which demanded a different service perspective. The Managing Director job became available a few years later.

What does your job involve on a day-to-day basis?

My job offers huge variety although we are extremely focused on health and safety and compliance, so that is the one day-to-day constant.

We are measured on financial performance and are a private business with shareholders. There is also a public-facing side to my job which is very difficult to plan for. You have to be skilled in public affairs and have and maintain good relationships with politicians, stakeholders within Glasgow and Scotland, council leaders and government bodies. There is also a great deal of public interest in the airport and so a large element of my job is externally focused.  One of the points I reinforce repeatedly is that airlines don’t fly to airports, they fly to cities and to economies. If we want to win a service, our whole pitch is about Scotland, Glasgow and the economic drivers that will sustain the route.

What have you had to learn on the job?

One of my biggest challenges has been developing my commercial negotiation skills and learning that at a time of significant economic pressure. I suspect you learn the most during the downturns as the good times can be relatively superficial. For me, the steep learning curve was having to learn how to commercially run a business in a new sector during the worst downturn in aviation history.

What have been the most challenging aspects you have experienced in the post?

The economic climate has to be one of the most challenging aspects I have encountered. Airports tend to follow economic cycles and are generally a great barometer for economic conditions. Looking back through history, every time there has been a dip, passenger numbers will decrease and when conditions have improved, passenger numbers do also. It has at times been quite difficult to try and tell the story of a regional airport which is in decline when everyone is looking for the airport to grow.

I was also the Operations Director at the time of the terrorist attack at Glasgow Airport in 2007 and although that was a difficult time I think we grew as an organisation as a consequence of the attack. Safety is a huge imperative for us so we perform regular exercises but nothing can absolutely prepare you for such an incident. I was actually on maternity leave at the time but I travelled to the airport and didn’t go home for over 24 hours. As an airport we received a few hours of sympathy but quickly realised we had 5,000 people queuing who were supposed to be going on holiday on Fair Saturday, the peak travel day for summer vacations in Glasgow, and that sympathy would wane fast. I was responsible for forming the team that would re-open the airport and dealing with the counter-terrorist team.

Allowing passengers to gain access to the airport whilst avoiding the crime scene took a lot of energy but we did it and we were open within 24 hours of the attack. Volcanic ash and severe weather conditions have also had an adverse impact on the airport but staying open for business and learning from each event makes us stronger. I still think of myself as an accountant but the only thing that really matters in this job is safety.

“My management philosophy is to be inclusive and to paint a picture of where you would like to go as a business. Keep it simple, involve as many people as you can and get them signed up to deliver that vision.

How important is Glasgow Airport to the Scottish economy?

Glasgow Airport supports 7,300 jobs across Scotland including our supply chain and the last economic report found that we made the largest contribution to the Scottish economy out of all the Scottish airports, which was £200 million GVA. We have to paint a physical picture of the importance of Glasgow airport and everybody seems to get it. Edinburgh Airport surpasses us in passenger numbers but Glasgow Airport is larger in terms of physical size, infrastructure and associated jobs.

What are the biggest constraints of running the airport?

We are a heavily regulated business and rightly so given the need for safety and security. We are heavily regulated by the Department of Transport who determine the application of the law in UK airports which we must uphold. One of our challenges is to provide a service which is compliant with regulation security but which is also convenient and as friendly as possible for our passengers. The security provision is not wholly ours to manage, and sometimes the speed of change, for example the overnight liquids ban, can be difficult to respond to. We are required to balance the books of service and cost. Passengers sometimes complain about unstaffed security lanes when going through security but realistically it would be highly inefficient to have every security lane operational all of the time. We do have a target of getting passengers through security in less than ten minutes although it is nearly impossible to estimate how many passengers there will be as we do not get passenger information from airlines in advance of arrivals so we have to rely on intelligence forecasting and historic knowledge of specific times and dates. It is a very sensitive process.

Who do you report to?

We report to Heathrow Holdings. Glasgow Airport has a relatively flat organisational chat with the Commercial Director, Operations Director and I sitting at the top. I have 10 direct reports and Glasgow Airport directly employs over 4,500 staff. I report through a Managing Director for the Division of Airports who then reports to the Heathrow Holdings Executive although we do operate an autonomous and decentralised business.

There has been a continuity of ownership of the airport. Change is inevitable, a recent change was the selling of Edinburgh airport last year. Strangely, this has been the most settled we have been in years and it is the first time we have not had to explain to the Competition Commission how we run the business on a monthly basis.

How similar or different is the job to being in charge of any other regional airport? What is the competition?

At a fundamental level there are more opportunities so demand outstrips capacity in terms of airline opportunities on a global scale. There are numerous profitable opportunities for airlines to put their aircrafts to. Our competition is not just within Scotland, our competition is global. Taking Emirates as an example, the big conversation was about how could we persuade Emirates to come to Scotland before they go to another country. It is about where do they get the biggest and fastest return with the least risk. In reality the UK is fairly down the pecking order because there are lots of emerging markets which are more attractive than the UK and the US. We start behind the curve and our job is persuading airlines to come to Scotland as opposed to another part of the world which is showing economic growth. That’s why we lobby hard on public policy around aviation as we are negotiating with airlines over pennies so discussions with politicians around aviation tax is so important with regards to global competition. This comes before the decision to “Visit Scotland” or whether to fly to Edinburgh Airport, Glasgow Airport or Glasgow Prestwick.

What are the routes you would like to see put in place at Glasgow Airport?

We do have some route gaps as we are a small population who are geographically challenged. Hub connectivity is a huge priority for us because it gives people an opportunity to travel far and wide and is probably the most realistic option for us being a nation of our size. Point- to-point travel, for example flying from Glasgow to Dubai, is a much riskier option for an airline. Strengthening our hub connectivity by making connections to the greatest number of hubs and improving frequency to them is crucial as this is a deciding factor for business and leisure customers.  From a Glasgow perspective, we are relatively strong in this area with good Dubai, Heathrow and Amsterdam connections but this could be strengthened further by a German hub for example.

Is there anything distinctive about running Glasgow Airport compared to other regional Scottish airports?

I think Glasgow is a very small tight-knit community with high expectations with regards to Glasgow Airport. Any efforts can be heavily scrutinised but also highly praised. You have got be part of a very active ‘Team Glasgow’, working with local companies, universities and supporting events with the Glasgow Marketing Bureau. There is a unique and hugely positive aspect of being part of Glasgow.  There is a very interesting and ambitious dynamic – one team who are going to pull it off together which has huge upsides. I think both Edinburgh and Aberdeen are working together to recreate this dynamic.  We are in competition with Edinburgh and both Glasgow and Edinburgh run successful airports which are convenient for local passengers. Glasgow does support its airport and we seem to be punching above our weight on a regional basis in that regard.

How is Glasgow Airport preparing for the Commonwealth Games in 2014?

We see Glasgow Airport as being the gateway to the Commonwealth Games.  Partnership with key organisations will play a massive role in the end-to-end experience and Glasgow Airport has committed to spend £17 million on passenger-facing improvements including international arrivals and check-in halls. Our theory is that this is a highly appropriate time to reinvigorate international arrivals. The eyes of the world will be on us and we have a civic responsibility to improve the look and feel of the airport through capital investment. We are also committed to maintaining good customer service and we have had a strong track record of this in the past. Actual operational performance during the games is important as is our continued relationship with the police. We believe that there could actually be less outbound travel during the games as people stay at home to join in but conversely I reassure people that we have facilitated major events before at the airport, so we believe we can deliver.

How will the experience of flying through Glasgow Airport change in the next, say 10 years?

I think there will be much more self-service in the customer experience. Check-in desks may become redundant as more and more people check-in at home. We have already seen the introduction of body scanners and I anticipate there will be much more automation from the front door of the airport to entering the aircraft. Connectivity on-board an airline will also improve significantly.

I believe we will see a growth in passenger numbers at Glasgow Airport and we may see different aircraft types which will require changes to our airfield. At present, a Boeing 777 can land easily at the airport but an Airbus A380 would not be able to operate unfettered.  We are pretty resilient in term s of aircraft size but we are currently restrained in terms of the size of some aircrafts that can land at the airport. 

From an environmental and sustainability perspective, there is an acceptance that there is a flight path and a general belief that the airport’s contribution overall to Glasgow is positive. We try to be as good a neighbour as we can be and we have set up an independent flight path fund which has awarded more than £550,000 to local groups and charities. We have a separate board for the fund which comprises an independent chairman and council representatives who manage the fund applications. We promote education, environment and employment as our three categories and support local areas, for example Clydebank and Ferguslie. The fund also supports visits from local school children to the airport and we produce a flight path newsletter.

The industry is very focused on noise reduction and on reducing the environmental impacts of air travel. We communicate that we are well within the regulations in terms of noise and that we uphold the law on the airfield. It’s about striking that balance and about giving back to the community.