Heathrow has appointed Thomas Woldbye as the new chief executive of Europe’s busiest airport, tasking him with repairing relations with airlines and reviving controversial expansion plans.
Woldbye, who has run Copenhagen airport for the last 12 years, will start on 1 October, with the outgoing chief executive, John Holland-Kaye, to see Heathrow through the peak summer holiday travel period.
While Copenhagen airport has faced similar challenges to Heathrow in navigating Covid-19, the shift to Europe’s busiest hub will be a considerable step up in terms of operational scale.
Last year, the Dane – who was paid 12.3m Danish kroner (£1.4m), only slightly less than Holland-Kaye’s £1.5m package – oversaw about 2,100 staff while Copenhagen airport handled 22 million passengers and 500 flights a day.
Heathrow is roughly three times the size, with more than 7,000 staff, 62 million passengers in 2022 and 1,300 daily flights.
Nevertheless, the 59-year-old has managed to turn a cumulative loss of 1.5bn kroner across 2020 and 2021 into a small profit of 257m kroner last year.
Heathrow continues to languish in the red, reporting a £684m loss last year compared with £1.3bn the previous year.
Like Heathrow, Copenhagen airport has had to deal with challenges including “misdirected and piled-up luggage” as well as delayed arrivals and departures and industrial action.
The airport was affected by a 15-day strike by SAS pilots, and last month the airline Norwegian threatened to pull out of Denmark’s biggest airport as industrial action led to cancellations.
“We need to look at alternative airports that are close to Copenhagen airport,” Geir Karlsen, the head of Norwegian, said at the time.
In its most recent annual report, Copenhagen airport said: “Several European Union countries experienced far greater challenges as travel rebounded, some of which spread to Copenhagen airport.”
At Heathrow, Woldbye will have to take on pushing through expansion
plans, with the third runway still officially back on the table after court battles and lukewarm government approval. The airport aims to expand its capacity by about 50% by building the runway, raising the prospect of more than 240,000 additional flights a year over London
Woldbye will also have to repair relations with airlines, which have deteriorated after Heathrow pushed to raise landing charges.
Willie Walsh, the head of the International Air Transport Association and a former CEO of the British Airways owner, IAG, has accused the airport of “gouging” airlines.
Andrew Charlton, a Geneva-based industry analyst, described Woldbye as “very level, very unflappable and calm … He has experience with outside investors, who generally, I understand, he keeps happy, and Copenhagen is a good, profitable, well-run airport.”
During his time at Copenhagen airport, which is part-owned by the Danish government, Woldbye oversaw the biggest expansion of its facilities and grew annual passenger numbers from 20 million to a pre-pandemic peak of 30 million over an eight-year period.
Heathrow’s pre-pandemic passenger level hit 81 million in 2019.
Woldbye said: “I am naturally excited and proud, as well as humbled, to have been chosen to lead what is arguably the most famous airport in the world on its future journey. My ambition will be to make the airport even better for passengers, for airlines, the community and every part of the UK.”
He previously spent almost three decades working at the shipping and ferry company Møller-Mærsk, including running the global container business Maersk Line and later the freight ferry operator Norfolkline.
Heathrow described Woldbye as the “standout candidate” among a “pool of exceptional contenders both internally and from across the world”.
Paul Deighton, the chair of the airport, said: “After an extensive and rigorous review of candidates, the Heathrow board is delighted to appoint Thomas Woldbye as the next Heathrow chief executive. Leading Britain’s hub airport is one of the most important jobs in global aviation.”
Internal candidates speculated to have been contenders included Emma Gilthorpe, the chief operations officer who was previously a director overseeing strategy and planning, including the expansion of the airport, and the chief financial officer, Javier Echave.
Holland-Kaye will have spent almost a decade running Heathrow when he stands down later this year.
