After just 16 months in his position as CEO of Ontario International (ONT), Kelly Fredericks has stepped down, the Ontario International Airport Authority said. The moved followed a closed-door meeting of the Airport Authority Commission.
“Both the Commissioners and Kelly acknowledge that their approaches to the direction and management of OIAA differ and that it would be mutually beneficial to part ways as OIAA moves to the next phase of the airport’s development,” Alan D. Wapner, President of the Ontario International Airport Authority, said in a statement.
The commission appointed Mark Thorpe, the authority’s chief development officer, as interim CEO. A veteran of Los Angeles World Airports, Thorpe joined ONT in August 2016.
Under Fredericks’ leadership, both passenger traffic and cargo traffic has increased at the Southern California airport. For the first five months of 2017, passenger traffic gained 6.3 percent to 390,516 passengers. Cargo traffic jumped 14 percent to 51,793 tons.
ONT has also attracted new air service. In June the airport announced that Dynamic International Airways will begin operating round-trip charter flights between ONT and Nanchang, China. ONT has also gained international service from Volaris to León (BJX) in central Mexico, among other new service options.
“On behalf of the OIAA, I commend Kelly for his leadership in successfully transitioning Ontario International Airport to local control. During more than 16 months at the helm, Kelly and his team made significant progress in furthering our mission to make ONT one of the most competitive, efficient, innovative and customer-friendly passenger, cargo and business airports in the United States. We thank Kelly for his service and wish him well in his future endeavors.”
