At this event the Netherlands Texas Business Association had the pleasure of having Mr. Holden Shannon, Senior Vice President Global Real Estate and Security of Continental Airlines as our speaker about George Bush Intercontinental Airport and its growth projection. Mr. Shannon is responsible for developing the airlines’ facilities worldwide, including its hubs in Houston, Newark and Cleveland and its headquarters in downtown Houston. He is also responsible for the airline’s global security and real estate, and environmental affairs groups.
With his background being half Dutch, half American and having lived in The Netherlands until he was 12, Shannon began to dream of working for an airline to enable easy travel back and forth to Europe visit family. After having worked in investment banking and public real estate development for a short while, going on to Harvard School Business, he started his career in the airline industry, ending up at Continental, where he has been for 15 years now. He combines his other interest, architecture, in his current position to mix real estate development with beautiful, logistically efficient airport objectives. Shannon is now proud to show the development of our Houston International airport.
IAH was built in the 60’s on a vast land and was one of the largest airports in size. As Houston’s economy grew, IAH expanded to become one of the top ten largest airports in the US and a strategic hub for Latin America and Europe. It originally started with two terminals (current A and B) and has grown until 2004 to a major airport with in total five terminals (A, B, C, D, and E). In 2007 IAH had a throughput in excess of 52 million travelers from which approximately 90% were passengers in transit.
To sustain this growth in the future (reported expectancy 80 million in 2020), Houston's Intercontinental Airport is required to create more efficient take off and landing logistics. Recently IAH received the permits to accommodate landing in Westward as well as in Eastward directions. This enables the airport to build more ‘East/West’ runways. The existing EW-runways will in the future be extended and widened to support new and bigger aircrafts like the A380. Therefore, too, the North> South runways will in the future be decommissioned and partly converted to additional terminal spaces.
The final objective for IAH is to duplicate an airport setup such as Atlanta, with separate terminal “trains” to transport passengers from one flight to another by commuter magnetic rails. The first step in this process is now starting, by reconfiguring terminal B to a third state-of-the-art international terminal.
With Houston as the energy capital, the world’s largest medical center and still offering best opportunities in the US, Houston is sustaining its name as a Modern International City; one of the best cities to live in according to Forbes magazine.
In conclusion: Shannon’s speech had the attention of the whole audience, and the NTBA would like to thank him for this great opportunity to hear a very interesting presentation!
The NTBA would also like to thank the Intercontinental Hotel, which hosted this event with perfection and arranging again for the famous Dutch ‘bitterballen’.
The NTBA is furthermore very pleased to have connected with the other European Chambers when organizing this special event: the French American Chamber of Commerce, the Italy America Chamber of Commerce, the German American Chamber of Commerce, and the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce - we look forward to co organizing many more joint ‘European’ events!
More information to be found on:
http://www.fly2houston.com/0/1004785/0/1906D1934/
http://www.houston2020.org/houston.htm
http://system.gocampaign.com/files/file.asp?f=56071