DIRECTOR’S CHAIR
PHX ON THE REBOUND
Traffic Has Bounced Back, Creating Challenges, Opportunities For New Director Makovsky BY CAROL WARD
ditor’s Note: Chad Makovsky has spent the past three decades building his career in aviation, with experience at small airports such as Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR), as well as large hubs including John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW ) and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX). In recent years, he was assistant aviation director at PHX in the mid 2010s before heading to DFW for a stint as executive vice president in the operations division. Makovsky returned to PHX in March 2021 as director of aviation services. Despite the ongoing pandemic, both cargo and passenger demand at the airport are thriving and PHX is positioning itself for future growth. AXN Editor Carol Ward spoke with Makovsky in December 2021 about his vision for the airport going forward. This is an abridged version of the interview conducted in mid December 2021. The full video interview can be found on www.airportxhub.com.
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Above: City of Phoenix Director of Aviation Services Chad Makovsky
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A X NEWS WINTER 2022
WARD: You’ve been at the helm for about nine months now. I know taking the reins in the middle of a pandemic can’t have been easy. Can you give me an overview of your key goals for PHX? MAKOVSKY: Coming back from DFW to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in the midst of a pandemic was certainly a challenge and a bit unexpected. Phoenix had lost about 90 percent of its customers and traffic, nearly overnight, as a result of the pandemic. I recognized that we would need to focus on rebuilding but I didn’t want to make any assumptions about all the work that the team had done. What I learned is the team had done an amazing job, frankly, of caring for our customers, caring for each other, and making sure that the airport was ready for customers when they were ready to travel again. They cut $40 million out of our operating budget. They deferred $800 million worth of capital projects. They took some very responsible steps, not knowing really what the bottom was going to be with the pandemic. I’m inspired by all that the team has accomplished.
WARD: In terms of passenger numbers, how is PHX faring and what are you expecting for 2022? MAKOVSKY: 2019 was the busiest year on record at Sky Harbor. We had 46 million passengers travel through our airport that year. We went from that to 2020, where at the end of the year, we had only served roughly 22 million passengers. When I came in, in March of 2021…we saw roughly 65 percent of pre-pandemic travel, and that steadily increased through the summer. In October we were sitting at 97.4 percent of pre-pandemic travel. That’s atypical - we recognize that. WARD: Tur ning to infrastr ucture, Terminal Three is now complete. Does that conclude all your major capital projects for the near future? MAKOVSKY: I’m going to ask you to check your couch cushion because we’re looking for money. We have about $6 billion in unmet needs at Sky Harbor Airport. Our cargo customers are telling us they want to grow and expand. Our airlines are telling us they want to grow and expand. And a lot of our ancillary businesses, including
