Thomas Woldbye, the Dane now charting Heathrow’s future

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Thomas Woldbye says Heathrow shares just one feature with the Copenhagen airport he ran for 12 years.

“What’s different to Copenhagen? Well, apart from the fact we have aircraft landing and taking off, then I think almost everything,” the man who took over as chief executive of Europe’s largest airport in October told the Financial Times.

Running Heathrow has long been a high-pressure job, but Woldbye has succeeded long-standing boss John Holland-Kaye just as Heathrow faces its biggest change in ownership since the airport was privatised in the 1980s.

The 59-year-old Dane will also have to make a decision on the politically explosive question of whether to build a third runway at an airport that expects a record 81.4mn passengers to travel through it this year.

In November, Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial, which bought Heathrow in 2006, announced it would sell its remaining 25 per cent stake to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and French buyout group Ardian for £2.4bn.

The news broke hours after Woldbye stepped off a Virgin Atlantic flight between London and New York, the first transatlantic journey powered entirely by sustainable aviation fuels.

As he mingled with Sir Richard Branson and UK government officials at a glitzy party that evening, the ramifications of Ferrovial’s decision became clear. Thanks to a complicated ownership structure, the Spanish group’s exit set off a rush among the airport’s shareholders to sell their stakes, leaving 60 per cent of the airport up for grabs.

Building a business that is “attractive” to shareholders will be one of his priorities, said Woldbye, but insisted that the potential ownership changes have not been a distraction. “To be honest it is not something we as management spend much time on right now; it is a question for shareholders,” he said.

Woldbye, who switched to the aviation industry after 27 years at shipping and logistics giant Møller-Mærsk, including leading its global shipping and ferry divisions, is an “operational type”, according to one person who knows him.

Heathrow will provide no shortage of operational challenges. Peak travel periods around Christmas, Easter and the summer school holidays can frequently create problems that spiral into mini-crises.

Woldbye brings a strong record from Copenhagen Airport, where passenger numbers climbed 50 per cent to 30mn during his tenure.

And his decision to swap Copenhagen’s largest airport for the “big machine” of Heathrow, comes as the UK airport has finally drawn a line under the crisis it was plunged into by the coronavirus pandemic.

Heathrow this week announced it had returned to profit for the first time since 2019, forecast record annual passenger numbers and dangled the prospect of paying its owners a dividend for the first time in four years.

A sustained recovery in passenger numbers — alongside a potential change in ownership — means that the vexed issue of whether to build a third runway, costed at more than £14bn in 2019, will be on Woldbye’s agenda.

The decision will be the biggest that Woldbye takes. He has launched an internal review into the airport’s strategy, and is clear he will take his time before making any final call.

“We have to make sure we get it right,” said Woldbye, who went straight from school into the workforce, but took a qualification in finance mid-career.

He has already made clear he will prioritise a more limited expansion focused on smaller and cheaper improvements — such as new terminals, parking facilities and baggage carousels — before considering a third runway.

A senior aviation industry executive says Woldbye’s fresh perspective is important because they believe his predecessor had become inextricably linked to ambitions to build a third runway.

Rob Barnstone, a longtime campaigner against a third runway and co-ordinator of the No 3rd Runway Coalition, would like the change of leadership to bring a new attitude to expansion but does not hold out much hope.

“It seems there is a change of tone rather than a change of heart. I suspect this will trickle down into the community, but it would all be in vain from the moment Woldbye fires the starting gun for a third runway,” he said.

The other major challenge facing the airport’s new boss will be repairing relations with airlines, which were damaged by years of bitter public rows over whether Heathrow should be allowed to increase its landing fees to cover losses during the pandemic. Heathrow also infuriated some airline executives by forcing them to limit flights during a period of travel chaos in the summer of 2022 caused by staffing shortages.

One airline executive said the tone between Heathrow and its airline customers has been “much more friendly” since Woldbye took over.

“Airlines are super important customers to the airport and we should treat them accordingly,” Woldbye said.

But while airline bosses were happy to exchange barbs with his predecessor, they privately appreciated Holland-Kaye’s willingness to push the government for more support, whether to help decarbonise the aviation industry or during the depths of the coronavirus crisis.

“While understandably Thomas will want to focus on the airport, I hope they don’t lose sight of that wider role that comes with being CEO of the nation’s hub airport,” said one airline executive.