The Sunday after Thanksgiving is expected to be the busiest air travel day of the year in the United States. Crowds will swell, schedules will bend, and many passengers will spend far more time in terminals than they planned, whether because of staffing shortages, weather, or system strain. In moments like these, a simple truth becomes clear: what happens inside the airport matters as much as what happens on the plane.
I learned that lesson early in my career. More than four decades ago, when I was a young architect, Art Gensler himself asked me to rethink the firm’s concept for Delta’s new terminal at LAX the night before a major presentation. After reviewing my sketches the next morning, he took me with him to the meeting and then asked me to present my ideas to Delta’s chair. Approval came the same day, and the design informed the terminal’s delivery, which still stands today as Delta’s entrance to Los Angeles.
When I began my career, the airport CEO’s job was about operations, runways, gates, schedules, and safety. Today, it’s about experience, community, description and resilience. In 40 years, airports have evolved from infrastructure to influence, and their leaders from operators to orchestrators, where design has become one of their most powerful tools.
Then and Now – The Expanding Mandate
In the past, success for airport leaders was measured by efficiency alone: throughput, on-time performance, and smooth airline operations. The architecture could be iconic—think Eero Saarinen’s TWA Flight Center—but the systems beneath it were far simpler. Security screening was minimal. Retail was limited. Technology was analog. Sustainability wasn’t on anyone’s radar.
Today, the job is exponentially broader. CEOs are accountable to passengers, airlines, retailers, local communities, sustainability boards, and investors, who all have different expectations. Their performance is increasingly judged by experience metrics, ESG outcomes, financial resilience, and community impact.
In other words, today’s modern airport CEO is part business strategist, part hospitality leader, and part city ambassador.
The Passenger Experience Becomes the Product
Where airports were once judged by how fast they could move people, today they are judged by how they make people feel.
Harvey Milk Terminal 1 at San Francisco International Airport shows what this shift looks like. Daylight, art-filled tunnels, and biophilic gardens turn what was once the most stressful moment of travel into one that lets people breathe again.
At the Delta One Lounges in Los Angeles, New York, and Boston, hospitality-driven environments create a sense of serenity and belonging that travelers increasingly expect. These spaces don’t just move people efficiently but rather set the tone for the entire journey.
For CEOs, experience is no longer decorative. It’s a performance metric that shapes satisfaction, loyalty, and revenue.
The Local Airport as the Global Gateway
Airports have become the front door to their cities, and airport CEOs their chief storytellers. The most successful terminals feel unmistakably local.
At Pittsburgh International Airport, hometown food concepts, cultural programming, and warm civic identity turn the terminal into a declaration of place.
In the new Terminal 1 at San Diego International Airport, materials, artwork, and ocean-inspired forms capture the relaxed energy of Southern California.
Airports that reflect their city build pride for residents and connection for visitors and differentiate themselves in a competitive travel landscape.
Technology and Data – From Bottlenecks to Seamless Journeys
Technology once made airports feel impersonal. Today, when paired with thoughtful design, it makes them more humane.
JFK’s New Terminal One will offer a biometric curb-to-gate experience, redefining the international traveler’s journey. In Pittsburgh, data-driven art installations turn wait times into ambient signals that calm rather than confuse.
As biometrics, automation, and AI reshape every touchpoint, design must anticipate rapid evolution. Flexible spaces, adaptable infrastructure, and user-first planning are no longer optional but essential.
Climate and Wellness – The New Mandate
CEOs today are also focused on the well-being of the planet. Sustainability is a decision lens for every capital investment.
At JFK’s Terminal One, solar arrays are designed to generate up to 40% of the terminal’s energy. At SFO, a “Triple Zero” strategy guides progress toward zero carbon, zero waste, and zero net energy. Pittsburgh’s outdoor gardens and SFO’s Sensory Room for neurodiverse travelers show how environmental and human wellness are increasingly connected.
These features are not solely amenities, but mere expectations for 21st-century infrastructure.
Leading at the Intersection of Commerce and Culture
Airports sit at the nexus of civic identity, global commerce, and public trust. CEOs now balance operational rigor with social value, technology with empathy, and growth with sustainability.
Design isn’t just what airports look like, but rather how leaders deliver on their mission. Great airport design is leadership made visible.
And it is unfolding during a wave of airport modernization across the U.S.
The Lesson That Endures
I often think back to that morning at LAX, when Art handed me the floor before I felt ready. He showed me what trust and vision can do.
Four decades later, I see that same lesson guiding the airport leaders of today, where their work is about people, not planes. It’s about the whole journey and not just around the arrival and departure.
The next generation of airport CEOs will be judged not by how many people they move, but by how well they move them. Because airports are not just places, we pass through. They are where every journey truly begins.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
