Full Video: Dallas-Fort Worth Airport CEO at Skift Aviation Forum 2022

25.08.2023 - 14:30 / skift.com / Rashaad Jorden / Sean Donohue

Sean Donohue, the CEO of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, has seen his airport make a significant rebound from the pandemic, becoming the world’s No. 2 in terms of passenger count.

Donohue explained at the recent Skift Aviation Forum how DFW parlayed its strengths, including its location in a fast-growing region, into a rapid recovery.

Donohue also discussed DFW’s digital transformation strategy, sustainability efforts and its preparations for the arrival of electric air taxis.

Watch the full video of Donohue’s interview with Skift founder and CEO Rafat Ali below, and you can also read the transcript below.

Rafat Ali: All right folks, we are well into the conference. Thank you again for coming. Thank you, Sean, for hosting us in your city.

Sean Donohue: Thank you, Rafat.

Ali: The back story is that I just randomly walk up to Sean in 2019 at a conference and said, “Hey, maybe we should talk together to do an airline industry conference.” To his credit, he the next day followed up with an email, had a conversation [with] John [Ackerman, head of strategy for DFW], who’s here as well, and we made it happen. It was going to happen in 2020, but now we’re back here in 2022.

The conversation that we’re going to have — all the three conversations that we had before this were all airline-focused and obviously, airlines cannot take off unless there are airports. And so for you, the pandemic, except for the early part, and I guess it’s the story of airlines as well, over the last year, has just been a huge boon. DFW now is the world’s No. 2 airport by what count?

Donohue: By passengers.

Ali: By passenger count, which is an incredible, incredible feat.

Donohue: It is.

Ali: I mean, there are multiple intersecting stories here. One, the recovery of the airline sector itself. Two, DFW’s position as the hub in the country, as well. Three, the story of Texas and North Texas, I guess, and how many people have moved here over the pandemic. So there are multiple intersecting things that make DFW probably one of the most fascinating airports to study.

The conversation we’re going to have today is about resilience, and we had this conversation last night at the dinner that we had, and then a lot of what your focus is, which is predictability and predictability for your business, but also for people who are passing through basically passengers like us who came for this conference through that. That’s the conversation that we’re going to have today on a bunch of these levels. From a resiliency perspective, three years into the pandemic, how ready are you now compared to 2019?

Donohue: Well, good morning everybody and welcome to the Dallas-Fort Worth region. [I’m] delighted, as Rafat said, that we’re finally having