From NY to a New Future
John Selden starts as CEO of Neom Airports
Saudi Arabia looks to future aviation growth for the new area of NEOM
AIRPORT VOICE, APRIL 2021 9
BY JEFF YAPALATER
Journey
John Selden spent many
years in New York as an aviation
professional running airports,
now he is building an
airport. Saudi Arabia is creating
a new, 21st Century City,
NEOM, in the northwest corner
of the country. It plans an
international airport in the
new semi-autonomous citystate.
NEOM ( meaning New
Future) which will be 100%
green, solar and wind sustainable,
AI robotics, car-free,
high speed rail transport, with
its own governance structure,
and The Line, a 170km belt of
hyper-connected transit to enable
future communities.
“An opportunity like this
comes long, once in a lifetime-
to lead the development being
built from the ground up”.
Selden said reflectively
He recounted the past few
years of his career-The plan
was to stay at JFK and eventually
become GM at JFK, but it
didn’t work out . When the offer
came from Atlanta saying
“we want you to be GM of the
busiest airport in the world”
that was an outstanding offer
that I could not pass up. Selden
recounted.
I interviewed with the
Mayor, who is amazing, and
she hired me. Being GM of Atlanta
was a great job at a fabulous
airport, with an incredibly
efficient operation, and the
least delayed major airport in
the country. In 2019 we had the
over 110 million passengers,
#1 in the world.
He boasts that ATL won
two ACI customer service
awards, with the 2020 Airport
Service Quality Awards for
Best Airport in North America
over 40 million passengers,
and Best Hygiene measures
in North America.
He proudly explained that
ATL is growing both hub wise
and technology wise with 9
new TSA screening checkpoint
lanes with cutting edge
technology, increasing the capacity
of the Airtrain by 20%,
a Runway End Around taxiway,
and a 5,700 space Parking
Garage with leading edge customer
experience. The forecast
for growth is very positive
and ATL will be ready.
Selden knows a lot about
capital planning as he attributes
his knowledge to his
time at the PANYNJ . The airports
difference is that there
is just one terminal at ATL
compared to 5 at JFK. ATL
owns the concessions and the
terminals, with 40 International
gates operated by a contractor
which reports to the
GM, and not by individual terminal
operators. Controlling
our one terminal is more efficient
since we can make faster
contractual and operational
decisions, can readily affect
customer service, cleanliness,
signage, wayfinding and
all customer service requirements
to satisfy the travelers.
JFK is one of several airports
leased out to terminal operators
by the Port Authority and
they act separately but often
together for common goals,
but the Port has to negotiate
with each one as they operate
and develop and have different
needs based on the airlines
based at each terminal.
Logistically this is much more
difficult to run.
Preparing
for the job
Selden shared a bit of inside
knowledge about JFK,
having spent 4 years there
as Deputy General Manager.
He gave major Kudos to the
Aviation Directors, Sue Baer
Tom Bosco and current director
Huntley Lawrence. “ Let
me tell you, there was no better
training, no better experience,
no better place to learn
how to run an airport than the
PANYNJ. It is an amazing college
of airport management.”
He said that each Port airport
has it own personality. As
the first GM Airport Certification
and Safety he had seen
the inner working of all 5 airports
and acquired the skills
and best practices to run an
airport . Short descriptions
were given to each airport.
“The whole spectrum is there,
from the quiet capable Stewart,
to Teterboro a busy general
aviation airport, to LGA,
a ballet of airport efficiency,
the monster International hub
of JFK, and EWR where the
airfield design, as difficult as
it is, with the two close parallel
runways that manages to
get over a 1000 flights a day
airborne, and the operational
and maintenance and financial
experience,.
I think all that prepared
me for this job. This job, you
know, learning how to efficiently
run an airport with 45
minute connections between
flights, it works, how do you
do it? All this has prepared
me for what I will be doing in
Saudi Arabia.”
Selden states that Hartsfield
Jackson Airport is for
Georgia, and generates economic
activity for city, state
and region, but the main focus
is to provide outstanding service
at low cost to our airline
partners so they will expand
connectivity, which will entice
businesses to locate and
grow in Atlanta. Delta and
Southwest were growing prior
to the Pandemic, and they are
very profitable at ATL.
We have 193 gates with
no spare gates. We currently
have 5 new gates under construction
that will be utilized
by United.
We are full because of our
low cost structure, where airlines
can be very profitable.
He cites the organizational
structure , the low cost, and
policies of the city as reasons
why ATL is successful,
Airport landing fees are
low, 50 cents per 1000 lbs. and
this landing fee strictly supports
just one airport that has
2500 flights a day.
Its cargo and their cargo
is flourishing with about 70
freighters a day, and Amazon
now has Amazon has 4 flights
a day. There were none when
Selden arrived at ATL.
Due to the Georgia’s COVID
policies the number of
flights is only down slightly.
The airport never had restrictions
in place. Asked why, he
explained that unlike NY with
a very dense population and
very heavily used public transit
system, Atlanta is more
spread out, and never had a
mask requirement until the
new Biden administration.
We have an excellent medical
system and the hospital beds
never got inundated like NY.
Our business did not suffer
like many airports around the
country.
Opportunity
of a lifetime
Selden has been GM at Atlanta
for 2 and half years. He
had no plans to pursue other
career goals. According to
him, the Saudi’s started to
recruit him almost 9 months
ago, It was quite a process
from the initial contact from
an executive search firm in
Dubai.
They wanted to know if I
was interested. I had just happened
to visit Saudi Arabia in
December 2019 with 2 other
CEOs of American Airports
to provide assistance for running
a hub airport. We traveled
to the airports in Jeddah,
Riyadh and Dammam. It was a
great experience. We received
a brief on the NEOM city development,
and got a brief on
the Red Sea project, all which
were very interesting.
Then out of the blue a short
while later, I got a call that
they would like to develop a
new international airport in
NEOM, coupled with expanding
the existing NEOM Bay
airport, which is small and
needed to handle 3 million
passengers they anticipated
from the new city of NEOM.
He passionately said, “Now,
I have the opportunity to actually
build an international
airport from the ground up.
I get the chance to Work as
CEO of the NEOM Airport
Development Company reporting
to Nadhmi Al-Nasr,
the CEO of the NEOM project,
who in turn reports to
Crown Prince Mohammed
Bin Salman.”
Selden describes the
NEOM Bay airport which
is located in Sharma, in the
north-western region of Tabuk
(an area reminiscent of
the U.S.Grand Canyon) as having
only one terminal building
which is used for business
services for development
of the new NEOM City. The
good news is that the runway
is 12,000 feet so it can handle
any size aircraft. aircraft. The
planned half a trillion dollar
city funded by Saudi Arabia’s
Public Investment Fund
(PIF) initiated by the Crown
Prince is expected to transform
the Saudi economy from
petro to business, sustainability,
health, and economic development.
Currently NEOM
is called the Dubai of Saudi
Arabia.
This NEOM Internal Airport
and another smaller airport
at the Amaala luxury resort
town, a bit South on the
Red Sea, are both projects that
Saudi Arabia is developing to
prepare for the day when oil
will no longer be the economic
engine of the land.
As Selden remarks again
and again on his good fortune
saying “ This is an opportunity
of a lifetime”. Indeed, for
both he and Saudi Arabia.