So… it’s been a while. Nearly a year in fact. I have been a bit start stop in getting myself back onto the writing saddle in truth. While a lot (a lot!) has happened since I left India at the beginning of June last year, I have struggled to find the time to settle into a new rhythm of writing. Plus, with India I had a reason to share. A story to tell. Whereas now it is more of a drumbeat of different experiences and activities, which to simply describe would go against my mantra of not just talking about what I am doing day to day.

I have been searching for an ‘anchor’ around which to orientate any journal posts. And I have not really found anything specific, other than a gradual realisation that in going about my – admittedly privileged – life of travelling a lot, I am observing the nuances that this world exudes. And so maybe that is the anchor.

As I spend a lot of time in the sky, and on the road, simply telling some tales, and observing things of interest may be the right approach. And so, I will give that a try. This therefore will be insights and observations from such a life.

www.skyandroad.net – at this point is more a holding page rather than a fully developed journal site, but it will evolve over time. As time permits that is. And speaking of time…

Island Time

I left India as planned on 1st June 24, leaving that era behind. I was there for almost two and a half years, and thoroughly grateful for the experience. Although admittedly glad it is behind me now. I still keep in contact with people there and watch with keen interest how the business progresses. My former assistant Priyanka still helps me with some long-term admin which I need to keep in motion for a few more years yet, and it is nice to get the occasional message from my former local friends there too. I will go back to visit at some point and will enjoy the opportunity to do so when it happens.

But life has certainly accelerated since my departure. The last few months in India were relatively calm, and from a business perspective things progressed at a steadier pace; primarily a function of the bureaucracy that is inherent in daily life there.

My life now is the opposite to that – professionally at least. I am back with my pre-India employer, MAG (Manchester Airports Group), in a role where I am given a lot of autonomy and self-oversight. Very liberating compared to India. It is partly down to the fact that I spent several years with the company originally and built up a degree of credibility and respect which means I have been able to slot back in quickly. The role itself is very different though, but that is what I needed. I had spent long enough doing air service development, and it was right for me to broaden my remit, and I consider myself very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to do so now. MAG is a company I have a lot of time and respect for, that I know well, and that is now giving me the freedom to develop this new international business. But with that freedom comes responsibility, and I am under pressure to deliver. Rightly so though.

In simple terms my role is to develop a new international division of MAG, whereby the company can manage airports overseas (away from the UK), building on the experience it has in operating the three airports in the UK and the lounges and digital business which already operates internationally. I am inheriting some work that went before but have picked up solo and until recently was a one-man band charged with this mission (until I recruited into the team to help with the increasing workload a few months back).

Aside from the activity already in motion I have had to build a pipeline of opportunities, set up the back-end structures to enable us to do it all properly, and establish awareness in the industry that this is now a space we are focusing on. I have been busy to say the least, and I feel we are now in a good place in terms of opportunity progression but have still to conclude any firm arrangements. These things are long burn discussions though, and a different scale to simply getting quick wins. Plus, we are dealing with stakeholders who are at Governmental levels in the main, so are inherently slower to deal with. It is therefore no surprise that we are still working to secure contract number one, but from a personal ambition perspective I am very keen to demonstrate some success soon.

Anyway, this is not intended to be a journal about my role, but the background is useful in understanding why I continue to travel a lot. You cannot have those sorts of discussions from behind a desk and on a screen. Despite the advent and proliferation of Teams and Zoom, true business development is far more effective in person. Yes, to travel to X, Y and Z is costly, but that cost pales into insignificance versus the value of these contracts once they are landed. It really becomes more about prioritisation and time rather than cost in the decision making. And that is where it can be challenging, as I cannot be everywhere at once, plus I also have a home life that I want to protect and prioritise. Home is where the heart is as they say, and I am firmly in that camp. I may have said this before, but I loved the time during the pandemic when I could not go anywhere and had to stay put for a couple of years. Obviously, I would not wish the pandemic on anyone, but that aspect for me was amazing. Being at home now is much preferable to being away. But I chose this career, so I am not complaining!

Since I left India eleven months ago, I have crossed the Atlantic twenty-two times (eleven separate trips) and have plenty more planned for the coming months. I have not added up the number of days spent in the Americas across the year, but it will equal a few months cumulative time at least.

I am writing this today from Miami, which has become my de facto US base given most of the focus is across the Caribbean region, plus some in the USA/Canada. Miami therefore presents a logical location from which to base, as it is well connected to all the relevant Caribbean islands and is much cheaper to stay in than a hotel in Nassau (for example). I have a longer-term road map which includes developing our business across the Caribbean as a priority area and depending on how we construct that it would make sense to establish the operating base for this in Miami for all those reasons. Probably a few years away from that in terms of scale requirement, but I can see it on the horizon in the medium term. In reality I could probably make a case for basing from Miami now as most of the people I deal with are in this region and time zone. This week for example I am spending a few days just working from here either side of a conference I am speaking at, simply to make it easier to interact with people around some core workflows I have underway in the region.

With that in mind, I have embraced Miami and made a conscious effort to get familiar with it – as well as any business traveller who flips in and out regularly can do at least. I am not quite at the point of going looking for office space yet, but maybe one day soon. Instead, whatever hotel room I have becomes the Miami office. I will talk more of Miami and its vibe in another future post. Save to say I do like it here. It helps that there is a good boardwalk along Miami beach which I am now well used to running on, although for most of the year the heat and humidity make it a tough outing, and so runs are generally slower paced and not overly far.

I have my eyes on a full-length boardwalk run this winter when the temperature is cooler. Will be a nice 10 miler. I went out for a 5K earlier this morning to beat the heat, and unsurprisingly there were many other runners doing likewise. Miami is therefore going to feature a lot more in my musings in the future, but I will save diving too deep into the Miami vices for now.

Speaking of running though, I do finally feel like I am beginning to regain some fitness following losing it all while I was in India. It is not that I have waited nearly a year for this, it is more the fact that I have had a few failed starts, with injury niggles and ironically a lot of travel making it hard to truly get some momentum under way. From being the fittest I have ever been prior to leaving for India in January 2022, to being probably the least fit when I returned in June 2024, it has been a struggle both mentally and physically to get going again. Unfortunately starting to run without a good base fitness is always the hardest time and that period is not particularly enjoyable. Especially when the recall is of feeling fit and comfortable at paces far quicker than those achievable in this restart phase. Plus, my body is not getting any younger sadly, so there is more of a propensity to injury. It is frustrating to say the least to start to feel a bit fitter and then pull a sodding calf muscle and have to rest up for another month. Following this occurring yet again while I was laying down a track 5K at the start of this year, and was nicely on for a sub 25min run, was the last straw. I subsequently found a sports massage therapist and now do what I used to do pre-India, and have preventative massages on my legs each month. So far so good (touch wood!!), and I feel like my fitness is now finally beginning to come back. I have been deliberately focusing on simple steady mileage builds to regain some base line strength and am cautiously optimistic that I may now be ready to start to push it on a bit. Nice to spend some more time out on the road therefore (the road element of ‘sky and road’).

This re-introduction to writing again, and setting the scene in this post, would not be complete though without reference to the Bahamas. This country is mostly responsible for my return to MAG, to the UK and to this new life. I have inherited a project to potentially operate and manage a small airport on the island of Grand Bahama. This island was decimated by Hurricane Dorian back in 2019, and the airport was all but destroyed. It remains operational though, just from some more bespoke temporary facilities, and the work we are lined up to do is to oversee development of a new terminal and then to run the airport on behalf of the Government.

Nice in theory. But in truth it is taking a very – very – long time to conclude the arrangements. In late 2023 MAG reached out to me about this project, as it would be the catalyst to unlock my return to the company, with my role intended to manage and oversee this work. It became a running joke that it would be signed ‘next week’ for months across the end of 2023 and into 2024, until such time that the business decided to offer me the job to come back anyway and not make it dependent on signing the Grand Bahama agreement. I have spent a lot of energy since I rejoined the business trying to get this over the line once and for all. And yet, here I am nearly one year back in post and still not signed. It has been ‘next week’ for nearly two years now. It certainly is not for lack of trying, but when the people we are dealing with are at the highest levels of Government, it adds a complexity that does not exist when dealing with more usual private commercial leadership. I am confident that we will get there soon, but for now we continue to work to ‘Island time’.

And so here we go again. If you follow along, these journals going forward will be more focused around specific observations and themes, rather than general updates. But as a means of getting back up and running, hopefully this has set the scene. My life now is a blend of Island time, and whirlwind. While the time since returning from India has been very much about spooling back up, I do feel I am now moving into a steadier state phase, and things will settle into a more consistent drumbeat – hopefully. I just hope Island time will soon see the clock tick forward, and the patience that has been required will soon bear fruit.

Regardless of this project though I shall continue to spend a lot of time in the sky and on the road. Getting the air miles in on one hand, and on the other spending time pounding the trails and the roads – hopefully getting fitter again. Feels like I need patience with the Islands and with my body, but we’re getting there.

Getting more time in the sky and on the road.