Syracuse airport executive director Callahan accepts number two job at NYC’s LaGuardia Airport

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Christina Callahan, executive director of Syracuse Hancock International Airport, has agreed to take a job as deputy general manager of LaGuardia Airport in New York City.

Callahan is expected to join the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey in March, the Syracuse Regional Airport Authority (SRAA), said in a Friday news release. The Port Authority owns and operates LaGuardia Airport.

Callahan’s final day is “still being determined,” Jennifer Sweetland, SRAA media contact, said in an email response to a BJNN inquiry.

The SRAA board of directors and its human-resources committee will initiate a search process for the airport’s next executive director, with details to be finalized and announced “in the near future.”

“Syracuse is an amazing place to live and work,” Callahan stated, “but the opportunity to join the [Port Authority of New York & New Jersey] and to work at one of the most iconic airports in the world is an opportunity I could not pass up. It has been an honor to lead the airport for the last eight years and I know that there are still many great things in store for Syracuse Hancock International Airport.”

Besides leading the airport, Callahan also served as executive director of the SRAA.

Callahan was the first, and has been the only, SRAA executive director, per its release. SRAA has operated Syracuse’s Hancock International Airport since it assumed control of the facility from the City of Syracuse in 2014.

Prior to her role as executive director, Callahan led the airport as the City of Syracuse’s commissioner of aviation. Callahan in 2018 was named Director of the Year in the small airports category by Airport Experience News.

“We are proud of and excited for our executive director as she begins this next phase in her career,” Jo Anne Gagliano, chair of the Syracuse Regional Airport Authority, said in the release. “For her to be recognized by the Port Authority as an industry leader speaks not only to Christina’s abilities but also to the great work that our airport’s employees and partners have done and will continue to do.”

LaGuardia Airport is among the top 25 airports in the U.S. serving about 30 million passengers annually and is in the middle of an $8 billion redevelopment program, SRAA said.

Hancock Airport in 2018 underwent its own $65 million terminal rebuild financed through a combination of funding from New York, the federal government, Onondaga County, and the SRAA.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com