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Dayton aviation director a candidate for Florida job

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Staff photo by Ty Greenlees Iftikhar Ahmad, Dayton International Airport Director.

By John Nolan, Staff Writer Updated 4:01 PM Tuesday, June 16, 2009

DAYTON — Iftikhar Ahmad, who has overseen a construction boom at Dayton International Airport and helped return international air service there as Dayton’s aviation director, is among the top candidates for a similar job in Jacksonville, Fla.

If Ahmad is ultimately selected as executive director/chief executive officer of the four-airport Jacksonville Aviation Authority, he could receive a pay increase of $100,000 or more.

Jacksonville is looking for a successor to John Clark, who left in April to become head of the Indianapolis Airport Authority that operates six airports. Clark was paid about $225,000 annually in Jacksonville to oversee the authority’s four airports, including Jacksonville International Airport.

Ahmad, a former executive with the Houston and Nashville airports, was hired by Dayton in autumn 2006 at an annual salary of $109,990. He has received three pay increases since then and now earns $123,968 annually.

Ahmad oversees Dayton International Airport and Dayton-Wright Brothers Airport, both owned by the city of Dayton.

Ahmad has made Dayton city officials aware that he is a candidate in Jacksonville, said Stanley Earley, Dayton’s deputy city manager.

“Iftikhar is absolutely terrific. He has been a major, major plus for Dayton International Airport and our airport system,” Earley said Tuesday, June 16. “I hope that he stays in Dayton. But I also understand that people have to take a look at opportunities when they exist.”

Ahmad is the apparent front-runner among six candidates chosen by a search committee of the Jacksonville Aviation Authority’s board of directors last week for a closer look, according to The Florida Times-Union, the Jacksonville daily newspaper. Applications are being accepted through June 26. A decision on the finalist appears unlikely before mid-July, as the Jacksonville board interviews candidates.

Ahmad said Tuesday that he applied for the Jacksonville job and has been told that he is on a short list.

“It’s a good opportunity. Other than that, I really shouldn’t comment,” he said in a telephone interview as he returned from a meeting of Airports Council International’s board of directors in Manchester, England. He serves on the board of ACI, a worldwide association of airports.

Spencer Stuart, a recruiting firm hired by the Jacksonville aviation board, reviewed about 60 applicants for the Jacksonville job and culled the list to a dozen, which the board reduced to six, The Florida Times-Union reported.

During Ahmad’s Dayton tenure, the airport has attracted a return of international service (Air Canada resumed nonstop service to Toronto in 2008); begun building a three-level parking garage; hired a contractor to build a hotel to replace the airport’s current one, has added guidance signs along the main access road, and plans improvement of parking lots. The federal government is building a new control tower there.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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