Toronto Pearson Airport new boss Deborah Flint comes with a wealth of experience
November 4, 2020
On frequent trips to Toronto a few years ago for a cousin’s engagement party, bridal shower and wedding, Deborah Flint often heard of her young travelling partner’s desire to move from California to this city and attend Ryerson University.
Little did her youngest daughter know that the wish would become reality.
Earlier this year, Flint assumed the role of President & Chief Executive Officer of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) after more than four years as CEO of Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) and 24 years serving in executive positions in the aviation industry.
She also served on former President Barack Obama’s Advisory Committee on Aviation Consumer Protection and as Chair of the Transportation Research Board’s Airport Co-operative Research Program Oversight Committee, co-chair of the Blue Ribbon Task Force on UAS (unmanned aircraft systems) at Airports and as a federal appointee to the Department of Transportation’s Drone Advisory Committee.
The GTAA operates Toronto Pearson International that is Canada’s busiest airport, serving 50.5 million passengers in 2019.
“We just love Toronto and I call it serendipity,” Flint said. “When the headhunter and recruiter contacted me about the opportunity, I was very torn because I was really loving the work I was doing at LAX (Los Angeles International Airport). I had come so far with the team we had there and we had a long way to go, but yet going back to the country where I was born and delivering on what was a very big and bold vision were compelling. Those things called on me in addition to wanting to be closer to some of my maternal relatives.”
As a Canadian-born executive, she considers it a privilege to be able to return home to lead the GTAA and ensure it continues to deliver benefits to its stakeholders.
“I love the aviation industry because it’s dynamic, challenging and complex and it has human purpose,” Flint said. “There’s a mission. To me, it’s almost a calling to connect people and create jobs. I am honoured, humbled and excited to be back home in this role.”
A few weeks after starting the new job, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, crippling the aviation industry.
How is the GTAA coping with the ‘new normal’ and what is the pandemic’s impact on the sector?
“The entire industry across the world is on course to lose $100 billion this year and hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost,” noted Flint. “This is one of the most difficult eras in the history of the industry. What I am proud about is that we at the GTAA have been incredibly resilient. We have been proactive in positioning ourselves to adapt to what the new industry is. We have created innovations and used our expertise that comes from being an industry and an organization that is known for its excellence with customers.
“We are providing expertise in health and hygiene that has given our passengers the confidence to travel through Pearson and our work with our airline partners has given passengers confidence to travel once again. That is a real testament to an incredible team forward-thinking leadership and commitment to the industry and the people that we serve.”
In its annual World Airport Awards released last May, Skytrax ranked Toronto Pearson the best airport in North America serving 50 to 60 million passengers.
Deborah Flint is the President & CEO of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority
Prior to the pandemic, Flint was working on a five-year strategic plan that included connecting Pearson to the rest of Canada by way of rail and road infrastructure.
“We are now developing a three-year strategic plan because everything in the world is so different,” she said. “People are working from home and there is no clarity on business travel and the role it will play and airlines having to adjust. We are most acutely focussed on three years, but in that plan we are prepared for three different scenarios to play out. They are a very accelerated growth after there’s a medical solution to the pandemic, maybe a scenario that’s more of the same of what we saw this year or, hopefully, a worst-case scenario going into the next several years. We are preparing ourselves to be able to operate and pivot the business no matter which of these scenarios plays out.
“The longer-term vision remains intact and I have full confidence that Pearson Airport is going to be one of the top mega hub airports in the long-term. There is an absolute need for people to connect across the world and for goods to continue to move across the globe as well. So, we are well positioned to realize that ultimate vision. But in the short-term, we have to adjust to a new dynamic and help to lead change. I believe that a crisis shouldn’t go to waste and this one reveals that the great competition of the virtual connection of people requires the aviation industry and airports to be better and easier for our passengers and people to navigate. We will make it better as a result of this process. There will be more digital and certainty and less concerning questions about how to travel and what’s allowed to travel. We want to improve those processes so that the travel experience brings less anxiety to people when they are about to embark on their trip.”
Flying into a few American airports during the pandemic, Flint said the process was incredibly smooth.
“I saw all of our innovations in play at Pearson and at the U.S airports,” she said. “It was very seamless and reassuring to see adherence to full mask requirements at every part of the journey and our incredible team members out on the frontline cleaning the airport. At Pearson, we have indoor air quality monitors and electronic display boards showing the quality of the air to show that ventilation and air exchange is high quality that is very important today. I was able to see those not just from the vantage of a CEO, but as a passenger and I had a great experience which makes me even more optimistic about this industry and airports adapting to a ‘new normal’.”
Appointed the LAWA Chief Executive in June 2015, Flint oversaw several elements of the $15 million overhaul at LAX.
She led the awarding of multi-billion dollar contracts for construction and operation of the $2 billion automated people mover to connect airport terminals with rail, bus and rental car stops and the $1 billion consolidated car rental facility.
Flint also oversaw the construction of a new terminal on the airfield behind the Tom Bradley International Terminal and the renovation of virtually every terminal at the airport.
It was her parents’ pursuit of opportunities that took them across the world that sparked her interest in airports and the aviation industry.
“I love aircrafts and I marvel at them, but airports capture me in the way they look and the complexity of how they function, moving people to hundreds of different aircraft right across one facility, the ground transportation getting them into and out of the airport in taxis, trains and buses and all the vibrancy and excitement of people moving around,” said Flint. “I have also always been curious about travellers stories. We have our story as a family and why we were travelling between Canada, upstate New York, Jamaica or Africa. It always just made me just very curious as to what other people’s stories were and what they were travelling for. Was it because of opportunity or dark challenges they were facing?” I was really blessed to have a view of the world and how different and diverse it is and that has shaped me profoundly. I am so grateful for that experience. I owe it to the ability of my family to be able to travel and fly.”
Born in Hamilton, she also resided in her parents’ birth countries – Jamaica and Nigeria – and upstate New York.
Flint’s mother, Herma Valerie Ibn Ale was a registered nurse who passed away four years ago, and her father – Magnus Ibn Ale – graduated from McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences and specialized in obstetrics and gynecology.
“My parents came from very humble backgrounds and worked incredibly hard,” she said. “They expected the best and did everything they could for me and my three siblings to have a good education. My mother believed in me and pushed me. In my moments when there was doubt in terms of my capabilities, she would just assure me that I could do it.”
Having a maternal aunt residing in the Greater Toronto Area who reminds Flint of her mother also factored into the decision to accept the offer to return to Canada.
Donna Burgess lives in Oakville.
“She has been a constant supporter and encourager,” Flint said. “She’s such an inspiration for me to continue to keep doing this important work.”
Flint is just one of two Black female airport CEOs in North America.
Cynthia Guidry, who has a background in civil engineering and project management, joined Long Beach Airport as its top executive in June 2019. She spent a decade at LAWA which is the governing body for LAX and Van Nuys airports.
“I had the pleasure of promoting Cynthia when she was at LAWA,” said Flint who enjoys listening to all genres of music and attending cultural events. “I saw her as a great rock star and have been happy to encourage her in her career and watch her do great things.”
Though there is a network of women across the industry who support each other, she’s concerned about the paucity of Blacks and people of colour in leadership in the aviation sector.
“I want to see that change not just in airport and airlines although that’s very important, but even in the businesses that we procure from and partner with,” pointed out Flint who served on the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. “One of my quests is to be more inclusive with minority local businesses and those that are reflective of the communities that airports and airlines serve. There’s a lot more attention been paid to that which is great, but we have got to do a lot more work and create those opportunities and make sure that businesses are aware of the opportunities across the industry.”
Flint graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from San Jose State University before joining the Port of Oakland that owns and operates Oakland International Airport. She spent nearly two decades with the company, rising to the position of Aviation Director and Interim Port Executive Director.
While there, she delivered the $480 million Bay Area Rapid Transit Airport Rail project, redesigned the customer experience and marketed, developed and negotiated numerous development and investment transactions in terminal renovation and hangar development.
Flint and her husband have three children.
The eldest, Victor Flint, graduated this year with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration & Management from the University of Southern California, Bridgette Flint is pursuing a Marketing degree at Loyola Marymount University and the youngest is a high school senior who intends to attend Ryerson next year.
