Member Spotlight: Dave Lees, CEO of Bristol Airport

Occasionally we like to shine the spotlight on our members, and in this case one of the members of the Bristol Initiative. We sat down with Dave Lees, CEO of Bristol Airport to talk about what it's like to run one of the UK's busiest airports.

Tell us about your role – what do you have responsibility for? What does a typical day look like?

I’m Dave Lees, the CEO of Bristol Airport. My days are varied – aviation throws up unexpected challenges and our reputation is only as good as the last hour. The Airport is a very busy place with up to 40,000 customers a day flying through in the peak summer months, 5,800 colleagues working at the Airport, plus the countless other people who come to the Airport every day to drop off and collect customers. Aside from the inevitable meetings, I like to spend time with our airline customers and varied stakeholders to understand what is important to them, and I like get out into the Airport as much as I can to meet customers and see the operation first-hand. We’re a people-led business so it’s important to be out seeing how services are being delivered and our passengers’ experiences.

We’re in the middle of a £400m investment phase, which is seeing fantastic upgrades to the Airport, like our brand-new Public Transport Interchange. But development in a busy airport isn’t easy, so a focus is delivering a seamless and safe passenger experience is my key priority. 

What does your organisation do? Why do you like working for them?
 
Bristol Airport is our region’s international gateway, providing connections to 117 destinations in 34 countries. We’re critical to the region’s economy, connecting businesses in our region with domestic and international markets, and enabling around 1.6 million business journeys in 2024. And we’re vital for inbound tourism, welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors who want to come to our fantastic region every year.
 
Locally, we’re one of the biggest private sector employers with around 5,800 employees working on-site. Airports are like mini-cities – those people work for over 50 companies, who are part of a complex machine that gets you safely to your destination. That makes it an incredibly dynamic place to work, but the satisfaction comes from speaking to our passengers and hearing the reasons for their journeys, which are always so important to them,

Why have you joined the Bristol Initiative?

We’ve been members of Bristol West for many years – it’s a first-rate organisation and does a great job representing businesses in our region. The Initiative plays a unique role in connecting business, local and regional stakeholders, along with policymakers to tackle some of the long-term challenges facing the West of England.
 
There’s a huge range of businesses, organisations, and charities that benefit from connectivity, and we want to help promote our region internationally – the Initiative provides a great forum for collaboration to help the city region flourish.

What are the key agendas that you’re looking forward to getting involved with?

We’re always looking to develop new routes and therefore new international markets for business. Through our latest growth plans, we’re targeting direct connections with North America and the Middle East, as well as new European destinations. We want to work with companies and organisations to find out what connections are important to them, so we can work together to develop them to the benefit of our region’s economy.

Where is your favourite place to visit in Bristol?

Being originally from an island I always love being by or on the water so the harbourside is my natural favourite place to spend time.

If you'd like to follow Dave on social media you can do so on Linkedin here, and you can follow and find out more about Bristol Airport there too. Also if you are a member of The Bristol Initiative and would like to be featured in a blog just like this one then you can get in touch with Jenny.