Norwich Airport has announced the appointment of Richard Pace as Managing Director.
Richard brings 25 years of aviation industry experience to the post having joined Norwich Airport from the RAF as an air traffic controller in 1995.
Most recently Richard has held the position of General Manager at the airport, from April 2015, overseeing the introduction of a range of new services including the first scheduled sunshine flights from Norwich for nine years.
Commenting on his appointment, Richard said: “This is an exciting time to be taking charge of the business and driving the next stage of our growth strategy,
“Our focus is all about connectivity for so a priority is to grow our links with international hub airports and increase the range of leisure destinations to give customers even more choice and flexibility from closer to home.
“We will also be looking at ways we can further enhance the customer experience at Norwich evidenced by customer surveys, and we want to maximise the opportunities created by the completion of the new Northern Distributor Road in early 2018, which will make access to the airport even easier for many people.”
Richard said he would also focus on growing the Norwich Connects business network, through which the airport is working with the business community to evidence demand for new services.
During his time at Norwich Richard’s experience has spanned all aspects of airport operations. He held a variety of technical roles, including air traffic control examiner, before being appointed General Manager Air Traffic Services in 2007.
He became Operations Director in 2009, managing a raft of upgrade projects including the installation of a new radar system, navigating two airspace change proposals and the construction of hangars, aprons, and taxiways.
More recently Richard has been involved in the launch of new routes to Malaga, Alicante, Exeter, Gran Canaria, Paphos, Rhodes and Chambery.
Copy ends
Notes to Editors
About Norwich Airport
Norwich International Airport is part of Regional & City Airports, the airport management division of Rigby Group plc having been acquired in June 2014. The airport employs 250 people.
The Airport offers direct scheduled flights to Amsterdam (with connections to over 600 destinations worldwide), Aberdeen, Alicante, Edinburgh, Exeter, Guernsey, Jersey, Malaga and Manchester. Connections through Manchester enable passengers to reach Belfast, Glasgow, Isle of Man, Inverness and many more.
Holiday flights operate to the Balearic and Canary Islands, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria and Italy.
The scheduled airlines and charter operators currently active from the Airport are:
- KLM, Eastern Airways, bmi regional, Flybe and Loganair
- Thomson, Thomas Cook, Balkan Holidays, Newmarket Holidays and Omega Holidays
The airport is a key hub for the southern North Sea offshore oil and gas industry. Four major offshore helicopter operators are based at the airport. These are Bristow, Bond, CHC and NHV. Last year 100,000 passengers travelled offshore from the Airport.
About Rigby Group plc
Rigby Group plc is the parent company for a portfolio of family-owned and highly successful businesses operating across Europe and the Middle East. Diversifying from its origins as a principally technology-led business, Rigby Group plc has evolved over four decades- through smart, strategic acquisitions – into a £2bn British success story employing over 7,500 people.
Rigby Group comprises six key divisions: Technology (SCC – Europe’s largest independent IT services business), Airports (Regional & City Airports, Norwich Airport, Exeter Airport and Coventry Airport), Hotels (the Eden Hotel Collection), Real Estate (Rigby & Rigby superprime property development, Rigby Group Real Estate including Imperial Park, Coventry), Aviation (British International Helicopters and Capital Air Ambulance), and Finance (Rigby Private Equity, Rigby Investments and Rigby Capital).
About Regional & City Airports (RCA)
Regional & City Airports (RCA) is Rigby Group’s highly-innovative airport management company. RCA owns and operates Norwich Airport, Exeter Airport and Coventry Airport, holds management contracts for Blackpool International Airport, City of Derry Airport and Lee on Solent airfield, and is actively building its portfolio of owned or managed airport assets across the next five years.
Regional airports are vitally important to the economic development of regions, not just in the UK but across the world. To survive and prosper, smaller regional airports need to cooperate and collaborate – enabling them to benefit from the economies of scale and sharing of best practice traditionally enjoyed by larger hub airports. This is the vision behind RCA.
RCA has built a reputation as an efficient, safe and commercially-savvy airport operator, driving improvements to route development, commercial revenues, operating costs and capital investment in order to deliver a consistently sound commercial return. As RCA grows it is increasingly able to leverage significant buying power and shared expertise. Already employing more than 650 people, RCA is on its way to becoming a leading player in the regional airport sector and is taking advantage of the lack of capacity at major hub airports in the UK to demonstrate how regional airports can ease the strain.
For more information
Judy Groves, Marketing Director, Rigby Group Plc, [email protected], 07850 622488
OR
Jason Clark, DCA Public Relations, [email protected], 01208-77900, 07980-834368
