Miguel Southwell
Brakkam Aviation Management, LLC was founded by Miguel Southwell, Brakkam’s President and Chief Executive Officer.
An industry leader with extensive experience and expertise in aviation management, Southwell has a proven track record in change-management, growing non-aeronautical revenue, fostering strong airline, government and public relations, and building competitive, world-class, efficient airport operations that promote the interest of stakeholders and the economic development of the local community.
Among such experience and expertise, Southwell developed and directed operations, revenue generation, and programs for the growth of passenger and cargo traffic at several large commercial and general aviation airports, including the world’s busiest, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL). In 2015, ATL grew to 31 airlines, 101 million passengers and 626,000 metric tons of cargo.
Under the first year of Southwell’s leadership, in 2015 ATL became the first airport in the world to reach 100 million passengers in a single year – one year ahead of schedule, and the airport achieved its first air cargo traffic growth following four years of declining volumes.
At ATL, Southwell managed an annual combined operating and construction budget of $1 billion and retained over two years, the airport’s ranking as the World’s Most Efficient Airport by the Air Transport Research Society. Under Southwell’s leadership in 2015, ATL also achieved in his first year of leadership, zero (safety) discrepancy in its annual safety audit by the FAA; the airport’s first perfect score in five years. During that same year, Southwell directed and earned ISO 50001 Certification for the Energy Management System at ATL; the first airport in the U.S. to have achieved such a milestone.
Southwell also led successful careers in banking and airline management and has also been an adjunct professor of air transportation management.