Leaves UK Airport After Six Years

United Kingdom-based airport Operator TBI-Abertis Airports announced Wednesday the resignation of Jon Horne as Managing Director of Cardiff International Airport. Horne has been MD at Cardiff since November 2001.

"I shall be very sad to leave Cardiff International Airport and especially the fantastic team I have worked with over the past six years," Horne said. "It has been a great challenge and I am proud of what we have achieved together. The airport has come a long way in a short space of time and it also has a great future.

"I have enjoyed my time with TBI, and I am grateful for the opportunity it gave me in Wales, but I have reached a point in my career where I am looking for new challenges and these lie outside the Group and may well even be outside the industry. I intend spending some time to review my options before deciding on my next steps."

Carlos del Río, Chief Executive of TBI-Abertis Airports said, "Jon Horne is a hugely respected figure in our Group and in the UK airports industry, and we will of course be sorry to see him move on. He has made a highly valued contribution to Cardiff International Airport and we wish him the very best in his future career. News of a successor to Jon as MD of the Airport will follow in the coming days."

Horne will leave TBI and the airport on October 31, 2007 -- exactly six years to the day from when he join the joined the Group.

"The search for a successor is under way. Since it is likely that a permanent appointee will not have been engaged by the end of October, I have asked Bob Bullock, Group Business Development Director of TBI-Abertis Airports, to step in as Managing Director of the airport in the interim. Bob has a great deal of experience in our industry, having been a commercial pilot, an air traffic controller and Chief Executive of four different airports in the US and Australia, including Orlando International Airport, Florida. Cardiff International will thrive under his stewardship, and he will be instrumental in handing over the airport to a permanent successor."

FMI: www.cwlfly.com/