CHARLOTTE — Charlotte Douglas International Airport opened in 1935. Eighty-six years later, the airport, known as CLT, hired a woman for the first time as its top executive.
Her name is Haley Gentry and, on a recent afternoon at the CLT Center, an office building near the main terminal, she welcomed a reporter into her office.
The shattered-glass-ceiling aspect of her ascension to aviation director was highlighted in the announcement of her hiring and in subsequent coverage. The distinction faded quickly because she keeps a low profile — Gentry’s deputies typically serve as the faces of media briefings — and, given her credentials, ability overwhelmed any antiquated notions of gender.
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On this day, Gentry, with the airport’s head of communications, Lee Davis, sat at a well-worn round table near her desk. Atop the table sat a tiny square container filled with sand, a miniature rake and related small-scale beach bric-a-brac, a gift to former Aviation Director Jerry Orr from one of his assistants after years of proclaiming his need for a “Zen garden.”
The pockmarked table, too, was Orr’s, rescued from airport storage and given a new base to make it presentable enough to put back into service. Orr’s office had been in a suite of offices in the main terminal.
Gentry grew up, and into her present job, at Charlotte Douglas. It’s the only place she’s ever worked, starting as an intern in 1991 while still in school at Appalachian State University.
Orr ran CLT for 24 years before losing a fight with city government — which owns the airport — after attempting to create an independent airport authority with help from state lawmakers.
Upon Orr’s abrupt departure in 2013, resulting from the city’s timely legal maneuvers to maintain control over CLT, the airport’s finance chief, Brent Cagle, became aviation director.
Cagle steered CLT out of controversy and ran the airport for seven years before leaving to become Charlotte’s assistant city manager. Gentry, whose previous airport jobs included business development, public affairs and airport operations, stepped in for a 10-month interim stint as aviation director before the interim tag was removed.
Civic leaders routinely cite CLT as the region’s most valuable economic development tool. Charlotte Douglas ranks among the nation’s, and the world’s, busiest airports, serving as the second-largest hub for American Airlines Group Inc. According to a state transportation department study released this year, CLT adds $32 billion annually to the local economy.
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CBJ wanted to hear from Gentry directly to gain additional perspective on the airport’s ambitious plans (construction is a constant) as well as the ongoing transition from Covid-19-caused shutdown to near-full recovery. That near-full recovery comes with caveats: who travels and how they travel has shifted, often blending business and leisure (yes, bleisure, is a thing).
At the same time, Charlotte Douglas and other airports are nearing the end of their federal recovery grants and must be ready to resume sustained, self-funded operations and construction debt financing.
Gentry talked about some of the major projects and areas of focus at the airport — including a fourth runway, work on which is ramping up now — and her thoughts on what comes next. Read the interview here.
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