Chad Nixon, Senior Vice President, McFarland Johnson, USA

Speaker Biograghy: Chad serves as Senior Vice President at McFarland Johnson, a consultancy providing financial and aviation planning, environmental, engineering and construction inspection services to airports large and small. He also serves as Project Manager and Technical Lead on system- and airport-specific aviation planning projects. He has a highly diverse aviation background that includes air traffic control, airport management and aviation planning. He has performed airspace liaison duties in numerous countries including Malaysia, Thailand and Oman. His current responsibilities include aviation forecasting, economic analysis, airport negotiations and aviation planning. Chad received his MBA with a specialisation in Aviation from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He serves on several aviation committees, as well as serving as an Adjunct Professor at Binghamton University in the Scholar’s Program. He has authored numerous articles including ‘Airport planning: the dynamic planning approach and the death of the traditional master plan’ in the Journal of Airport Management.


Day 3 - 12 March
Session: Airport Design, Planning & Development

10:05 - 10:35 - Future-proofing your airport development planning
Synopsis: The sluggish economy, business globalisation and changes within the aviation industry around the world have made it nearly impossible to accurately predict long- or even short-term changes in air and passenger traffic and determine timing for needed improvements. In response to these changes, a method for ‘future-proofing’ development planning has been created, allowing airports to consider unforeseen scenarios and adjust airport plans for terminal development, cost structure and space allocation to incorporate these inputs/scenarios. This interactive session will reveal details of a first-of-its-kind computer model that analyses future airport scenarios with just a few clicks on the interface.

Audience will learn: