We would like to thank all our members, guests, stakeholders, and government representatives for attending the BAG Annual 2023 last week. The evening was a great success with around 400 guests at The Landmark London with everyone coming together as a community to celebrate the aviation industry.
A special thanks to Emma Gilthorpe, Chief Operating Officer at Heathrow Airport for delivering our key note speech, speaking on the importance of decarbonising aviation outlining all different dimensions and layers of responsibility and accountability and what we can all do to support the transition to Net Zero; including a call to use the next 26 years proactively which requires collaboration across all stakeholders including operators, supply chain and policy makers. It was fantastic to also once again welcome Aerobility, BAG’s long standing charity on the evening, and collected over £4,000 in donations for this wonderful cause. BAG would also like to thank our sponsors Bechtel, Gardiner & Theobald LLP, Mace and Pascall+Watson.
Finally, you can view and download the full BAG Annual Dinner booklet here which includes the guestlist and as well as download all pictures taken by our professional photographer here.
BAG Annual Dinner 2023 Sponsors
Keynote Speaker
Emma Gilthrope
Emma is Chief Operating Officer of Heathrow Airport. She has spent the last year building back capacity and capability to meet rapidly increasing passenger demand, along with an airport wide performance framework to ensure demand can be met safely, sustainably and at appropriate levels of service, across the airport ecosystem.
During Covid she and her team ensured Britain's hub airport maintained vital international connectivity for passengers and cargo and transformed the operational cost base to protect the business during the prolonged downturn.
Emma has led a wide variety of teams since she joined Heathrow in 2009. She established the Expansion Programme, a £30bn 25-year project to significantly increase airport capacity whilst delivering binding commitments to reduce noise, improve public transport and local air quality, and cut carbon emissions. The Airports National Policy statement received overwhelming cross-party political support and unprecedented buy in from communities, business groups, trades unions and local authorities. Prior to this she headed teams across Strategy, Regulation, Planning, Sustainability and Capital Project delivery. Amongst other things, she led the strategy that underpinned Heathrow 2.0: a plan for sustainable growth, which fundamentally repositioned the airport's environmental and sustainability ambition.
Before aviation Emma worked in the telecoms sector across a range of strategic, policy and commercial roles, where she campaigned for the break up of BT and the creation of Openreach to drive greater competition and improved consumer outcomes. She also devised a regulatory and economic strategy to deliver nationwide superfast broadband underpinned by public subsidy.
Emma is the CEO of the Jet Zero Council, a part time pro bono role, and a qualified barrister.
