James Fazio – Aruba Airport Authority’s new C.E.O

ORANJESTAD, Aruba: James Fazio started his career working for the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey, where he held several positions in airport operations. In 1997, when the international terminal of the New York airport was privatized, Schiphol Group won the contract and Fazio transitioned from his job at the port authority to go work for Schiphol Group as the executive in charge of managing JFK’s Terminal 4.

 Earlier this year, when Peter Steinmetz accepted a new challenge, Schiphol Group called Fazio and offered him the position of C.E.O. of Aruba Airport Authority N.V.

 Today, having completed an introduction and orientation phase on Aruba, James Fazio has his vision well thought out and is ready to execute future plans for ‘Aeropuerto Internacional Reina Beatrix’. In comparison, the operations at JFK airport’s Terminal 4 were much larger, managing 17 million passengers per year, while the Aruba airport manages more or less 2.5 million passengers annually. In addition to the size and number of passengers per year, the main difference between JFK and AUA is, that contrary to JFK, the Aruba airport is a national airport and this brings an entirely different set of challenges and has a different significance, according to James Fazio.

 Aruba Airport Authority’s new manager says he was not sure what to expect, and what he did find is a very modern airport and a team of professionals that has a lot of motivation, ambition and talent. He adds that the airport has many past successes on its name and he is ready to roll up his sleeves and work on building on those past successes to make the airport a place that the people of Aruba are proud of.

 The airport has its issues, Fazio remarked, adding that at present “we are a victim of our own success”. Every month Aruba breaks a new record per single day, per single week and with this a monthly record in the volume of passenger who use the facilities – the movement of passengers and aircraft is high – and it is understandable that this causes pressure and tension on the services.

 Fazio commented that there are some projects in the pipeline and he is very keen on getting those  projects across the finish line. There are different improvements to the infrastructure of the facilities that have to be executed in the next few years. Among others he mentioned: a new baggage system to improve the process and make it unnecessary for U.S. bound passengers to reclaim their bags; expansion of the security checkpoints; streamlining the Aruba outbound passport control process; re-positioning of some of the retail concessions and attending to the aircraft parking stands.

 A master plan will be made and presented to improve management of passenger volumes, because this is now a short term issue, but it has to be solved to guarantee that the airport has the space to continue growing and that there will be no problems with the operations.

 James Fazio stated that the airport should be extremely modern, convenient and it should also “feel like Aruba”. The goal is to combine these factors and set some long term goals to be accomplished.

 The partnership with Schiphol Group benefits Aruba in the sense that it is always good to have “outside influences”, and Schiphol has “feelers” that extend all over the globe, he said. “They bring a tremendous amount of knowledge and value to Aruba’s airport and then when you mix that with the local knowledge, you really do have a recipe for success,” James Fazio explained. This is a good long term management strategy.

 “I absolutely think that Aruba airport will benefit from that knowledge and that partnership,” he continued.

 “I am looking forward to working with some of those folks, I think they've got a lot of great ideas and as the leader of the team I am going to try to harness that talent and channel it into some really productive results,” James Fazio concluded.

 This year, exactly ten years ago, Aruba Airport Authority entered into a Strategic Co-operation Agreement with Schiphol International. Schiphol International is the division responsible for international activities at the Schiphol Group, owner and manager of among others Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. The Strategic Co-operation between the Aruba Airport Authority and Schiphol Group focuses on making maximum use of Reina Beatrix International Airport’s commercial potential, to strengthen its financial position and to assist the airport in further developing the facilities on and around the airport, in order to develop Reina Beatrix International Airport into one of the leading airports in the Caribbean.