The Board of Perth Airport has only recently announced the position of Chief Executive Officer to Mr Kevin Brown, a senior executive with extensive operational and commercial experience in airports across the UK and Australia. After undergoing a $1 billion redevelopment program, Mr Brown’s primary focus is growing operations at Perth Airport.
The task is certainly a daunting one. But Brown believes that growing Western Australian exports and bringing the tourism and education sectors closer together is the answer.
“If you take universities and tourism bodies and you take exporters, I don’t think all those bodies see themselves in the same sphere, but they are in the same sphere of exports,” Brown said.
“It’s about exporting our tourism, exporting the great universities that we have in the state and what they have to offer, and exporting the great produce that we have in our region, whether it’s agriculture or aquaculture. If we bring all those elements together, we can actually underpin the financials of airlines’ operations coming out of this airport.”
Another area that Brown is focusing on is securing more direct flights.
Perth Airport currently services non-stop flights to 42 cities and has added two new airlines in the past two years—China Southern and Malindo Air. Other key markets include Japan, Philippines, China, Vietnam, India, and Indonesia.
“We’ve seen some really strong growth in some of those markets and there are other markets that we believe that, if we could actually service them directly, we would see an increase in visitation from that country,” Brown said.
Perth Airport is looking to increase capacity into China as well as it is one of the faster growing outbound markets. Brown has previously stated that destination marketing is key to bringing more visitors. And developing new routes with more direct flights is only the first step. Displaying local artwork will also play a major role to make Perth Airport more of a unique and memorable destination.
