Heathrow’s vision to be an ‘extraordinary airport fit for the future‘

Helen Elsby, Chief Solutions Officer at Heathrow Airport, talks to Sarah Dale about being a Chamber Patron and Heathrow’s vision for the future.

Heathrow’s biggest challenge is getting the balance right between profitability and growing the business so it meets the demands of about 82m passengers in 2024 and being a good neighbour right at the heart of their community.

Being a Patron of West London Chambers of Commerce helps Heathrow achieve that by sharing their key messages with the business community, says Helen Elsby.

As Chief Solutions Officer – a “wonderfully grand job title that effectively means I look after change” – Helen’s focus is changes in technology and cyber, construction and infrastructure, procurement, business change, and process engineering.

Helen has always worked in the aviation industry, previously at British Airways and then at Heathrow for the past 15 years, taking on the Chief Solutions Officer role in September 2021.

Heathrow joined the Chamber more than 20 years ago and Helen says there are several reasons why.

“We are very committed to sustainability and connecting with the community,” says Helen. “The Chamber helps us to ensure we’re integrated into the community and achieve our strategic objectives.”

The company’s sustainability strategy “Connecting People and Planet” includes cutting carbon in the air by up to 15 per cent by 2030 (compared to 2019) and at least 45 per cent on the ground by 2030 (compared to 2019), working towards improving local air quality, quieter flights, a nature positive airport and zero waste.

“There have been lots of ways being a Chamber Patron has helped us,” says Helen. “Our membership allows us to network with local businesses, for example, we can share our Lift Off initiative, our friendly version of Dragon’s Den, where we pick a topic every quarter and find local SMEs who want to showcase their work to Heathrow. We have had some great successes – one created the trophies for our business awards event last year and three applicants have secured work at Heathrow through our supply chain. It’s a great day for everybody but it also shows our commitment to make the community part of Heathrow’s success.

Heathrow has 7,000 direct employees, however, there are more than 70,000 people that form Team Heathrow as suppliers, retailers and airlines. The airport handles over 450,000 flights annually, serving 89 airlines with 239 destinations, and enabling carriage of 1.43 million tonnes of cargo a year.

“There are lots of different areas where the Chamber is a real conduit for us to connect to the wider business community.”

Helen’s advice to new members is to “be visible and be bold” and talk to as many people as possible.

“There will be a reason that you joined so utilise that reason and make the most of it e.g. workshops, seminars and advice,” she says.

“The Chamber is there to support businesses. They gave me a half-hour slot over breakfast at their Festival of Business which was not only a great opportunity to share what Heathrow is doing but also a chance to liaise with local businesses for feedback. This was really useful as I heard from businesses about how can it sometimes be hard to get work at Heathrow.”

Heathrow has 7,000 direct employees, however, there are more than 70,000 people that form Team Heathrow as suppliers, retailers and airlines. The airport handles over 450,000 flights annually, serving 89 airlines with 239 destinations, and enabling carriage of 1.43 million tonnes of cargo a year.

“Heathrow can’t be successful on its own; it needs everyone in our supply chain to be successful,” she says.

“We’re a big employer in totality and also quite a big infrastructure in the heart of the community. We want to get that balance right of being profitable and also being a good neighbour.”

Earlier this year, Heathrow “refreshed its strategy” with its new vision to be an “extraordinary airport fit for the future”.

“We are trying to put the pandemic behind us,” she says.

“Recruitment was very hard for a lot of airports and a lot of people left the industry during Covid. We are probably through that now but the challenge we have going forward is that the capability we’re looking for evolves into what the airport needs. We are investing more in construction, infrastructure and technology and looking at skills pockets we need in the next 10 years and looking at more apprenticeship opportunities.

“We are back on a growth trajectory and hoping to have more passengers this year than ever before. Now we are looking at how we can take that to the next level such as investment in our technology. We are looking at how we can attract more passengers here and make it more enjoyable and easier. We are looking at options on how we can modify Terminal 2 and Terminal 5 to improve capacity as part of the overall master plan.

“We want Heathrow to be an extraordinary airport fit for the future.”