A few notes from the road through Canada and Dubai to Kuala Lumpur.
The trip on the Emirates A380…..Wow! Never have 12 1/2 hrs of travel gone by so fast.
The Petronas Towers are right next to our hotel.
The Dubai Airport….Wow! An enormous Duty Free Area. Our departing flight was at 3 a.m. As we were walking to our gate at about 2 a.m. we walked through enormous crowds of people. Dubai at 2 a.m. It is one of the busiest airports I’ve ever seen. We had dinner with our son who works in Dubai and who we hadn’t seen in 4 months, which was very special.
The welcome here in Malaysia….Wow! Tan Sri Bashir Ahmad runs a terrific airport and he and his team have welcomed all of us with open arms.
We are staying and working right next to the Petronas Towers, the world’s second largest building. There has been a fair amount of rain which explains all the greenery and humidity.
Just finished two days of ACI World Governing Board-related meetings. Jim Cherry, who runs the Montreal Airport, has done a terrific job as chair of ACI World and Angela Gittens has done the same as ACI World Director General.
ACI World’s membership includes 1,679 airports in 177 countries. While ownership models and political challenges may vary, many of the issues, regulatory requirements and economic pressures are similar across national and regional lines.
Having the opportunity to get to know and work so closely with airport leaders from every corner of the world in our effort to amplify the voice of the world’s airports is a real honor and privilege. I will write about many of the goings on here in the days ahead.
