Photo: Los Angeles Sentinel
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is already the wolrd’s fourth busiest airport but it’s about to get a lot busier. Los Angeles will host the 2028 Olympics and in anticipation, the airport is adding up to two new terminals and nearly two dozen gates. This is all part of the airport’s ongoing $14 billion initiative to modernize the airport, which includes a circulator train or “people mover,” which is scheduled to open in 2022. Guiding all of it is a dynamic sister by the name of Deborah Flint. AKAs do way more than step.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti nominated Flint to be the CEO of Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) in 2015. LAWA operates LAX and Van Nuys airports. In her time at LAWA, Flint has secured the largest public works agreements in the history of Los Angeles. The $5.5 billion Landside Access Modernization Program (LAMP) is positioned as the solution to the crowded roadways and curbsides in and around LAX. Flint is at the forefront of modernizing LAX and as Los Angeles prepares to host the 2028 Olympics, the city will be ready, thanks to Flint. With several thousand employees and billions of dollars under her authority, Flint is a major deal.
Flint is originally from Hamilton, Ontario, the daughter of African and Caribbean immigrants. She spent her childhood travelling to Africa and the Caribbean with her family often, to help people in need. Those early experiences exposed her to the world of aviation and the power therein to do good. Flint earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from San Jose State University, where she became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Flint would later go on to become Aviation Director of the Port of Oakland, before landing the job at LAWA. Flint also served on President Obama’s Advisory Committee on Aviation Consumer Protection. You get the point — Deborah Flint is a force in the aviation world.
Flint will leave LAWA in April to serve as President and CEO of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority. As a native Canadian, it’s a homecoming, of sorts. Still, when the Olympics comes to Los Angeles in 2028, the city and the airport will be ready because of a woman named Deborah Flint — never forget that.
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