Airport Revenue News (ARN) has named Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airports (DTW) Airport Director, Lester W. Robinson, as its 2006 Best Director of the Year in the Large/Medium Airports category. For the purposes of this competition medium airports are those with total passengers between five and 10 million while large airports are those with passengers over 10 million. The ARN editorial staff chose Mr. Robinson for this prestigious award due to his successes in the areas of leadership, innovation, revenue generation, marketing, customer service, and community service contributions.
ARN solicited for candidates by asking airport staff to describe their director’s successes in the six above-mentioned areas. After poring through the written responses and scoring each criterion, the ARN staff established that Mr. Robinson excelled in this competition.
“Mr. Robinson shows a steady record of outstanding accomplishments at DTW including the completion of airport improvement projects such as a new hub gateway, a 97-gate terminal, a fourth parallel runway, a new 11,000-plus parking garage and a 400-room on-airport hotel,” says Pauline Armbrust, president & CEO of Armbrust Aviation Group which publishes the ARN and AirOps magazines. “Making these projects even more impressive is the timing of their completion–post 9/11, when many airports faced revenue and operational challenges.”
His financial background and successes in the government and aviation sectors allowed Mr. Robinson to serve DTW in multiple capacities prior to becoming CEO of the Wayne County Airport Authority. During his tenure, Mr. Robinson has successfully increased non-airline revenue by nearly 68%, a significant portion coming from the concession program, which has increased 388% during his six years leading the airport. The culmination of this increase came in 2005 when, for the first time in DTW’s history, non-airline revenue exceeded airline revenue. Over the last four years, Mr. Robinson has reduced DTW’s airline costs per enplanement (CPE) by approximately 27%. This reduction helped attract five new carriers and increased the number of non-stop destinations to nearly 150. As a way of giving back to the community, Mr. Robinson and his executive staff donate time to building homes with Habitat For Humanity. He also leads the Authority’s Art of Giving program, which encourages employees to donate to any charities supported by Wayne County Airport Authority.
Details of Mr. Robinson’s accomplishments will be highlighted in ARN’s year-end upcoming December/January issue. Additionally he will be featured on the front cover, become a member of ARN’s Advisory Board and receive a special hand-engraved crystal trophy at ARN’s 2007 Airport Revenue Conference on February 18-20, 2006 in Orlando, Florida during the publication’s much-anticipated Awards Show.
Airport Revenue News (ARN) is a monthly trade magazine devoted to coverage of all revenue generating issues affecting the airport industry. The publication is the foremost news and information resource for airport executives, concessionaires, consultants and others involved in the aviation industry. ARN also conducts a Best Concessions awards competition in February. The ARN awards are highly coveted and considered the most prestigious in the airport industry.
For more information about ARN call Ramon Lo at: (561) 355-8488 ext. 112, email: [email protected]. Additionally, link to our website at www.airportrevenuenews.
