Gale Associates, Inc. will be conducting periodic interviews with Airport Professionals so that we may learn more about them, the facilities that they manage, and share it with other like-minded professionals. We hope you enjoy reading this profile of Andrew as much as we enjoyed speaking with him and writing it. Let us know if you, or anyone you know, would like to be our next Featured Airport Professional!
One question we ask every professional we interview is “what advice do you have for new aviation professionals entering the workforce?” We’ve received a range of answers over the years. The response from Andrew Pomeroy, Director of Aviation Planning and Compliance for the Pease Development Authority that manages both the Portsmouth International Airport at Pease (PSM) and the Airport (DAW) in Rochester, New Hampshire, was so fitting and practical that it warranted a highlight upfront in our article. Andrew’s advice for new professionals wishing to enter the airport operations workforce: “I recommend looking for positions at busy “smaller” GA or non-hub/small hub airports to start your career. With their smaller staffs and budgets, every person on staff is essential and must wear many hats. You’ll be able to learn about all aspects of Airport Management.” Any professional will tell you that the more “hats” you are able to wear in your role, the more well-rounded you will become, and that is how Andrew has built his extensive and exciting career.
Andrew’s love of aviation began as a young boy. Whether it was hammering scraps of wood together to fashion airplane wings or creating parachutes out of bedsheets to jump off of roof tops at the age of five, he just wanted to fly! By age seven, he was a regular at the Pease Airforce Base, attending air shows and taking his first flights with his best friend, whose father was a KC-135 Crew Chief. It was then he knew that he wanted to become a pilot. Fast forward to his years at Daniel Webster College where he traded hours working at a small GA airport as the Assistant Manager for flight time, simultaneously earning his degrees and pilot’s license. After college, Andrew was offered a position as an airport operations intern at the Pease Airport where he took every opportunity to learn as much as he could about the ins and outs of airport management. By the time a full-time position opened a few months later, Andrew was well-trained and a perfect fit. Since that day, he has continued to take on additional responsibilities, working his way up the Pease Development Authority ladder to his current role today.
Managing two facilities serving distinctly different user groups, Andrew has learned to work with a range of professionals from various organizations, often with competing interests and values. This, he says, is his favorite aspect of his role and goes on to explain, “In Aviation and Airports in particular, you have the opportunity to work with an extremely diverse group of professionals from every aspect of life: from federal and state regulators, FAA, TSA, USCBP, to air traffic controllers, engineers, contractors, aviators, wildlife biologists, specialists, technicians, managers, politicians, and of course the dedicated men and women of our armed services. What I enjoy most is gathering these diverse groups of professionals, often with diverging interests, and building and leading effective teams that come together to accomplish a common goal. To do this effectively requires you to learn a bit of each of their jobs and their worlds so that you can better understand their perspectives and find that common ground.”
Having a well-rounded understanding of the various professions required to keep two busy airports running efficiently is one of the many factors that have made him so successful and has sustained his 28-year career with the Pease Development Authority. During his tenure, he has learned to navigate two unique sets of demands presented by PSM, which offers scheduled commercial service with 24-hour air traffic control and customs, and DAW, which accommodates light general aviation traffic such as recreational flyers.
