Ex-Utahn to take reins at S.L. airport

A native of the West who pined for the high desert will become Salt Lake City International Airport's next executive director.

Roy Williams, who directs the New Orleans Airport, will take over the post left vacant last year by Tim Campbell, who now oversees the Baltimore/Washington International Airport. Williams will begin work May 30.

Williams was paid about $176,000 in New Orleans. His annual salary in Salt Lake City will be $185,000. He is scheduled to meet with the Salt Lake City Council on May 2 for the council's approval.

He grew up in Boise and worked as a lawyer in Utah until he left the state in 1984. He said he's wanted to return since then.

"Where some people really love the lush greenery of the East Coast or the wonderful seashores of California, I happen to really like the joys of the high desert," Williams said.

Williams saw the New Orleans Airport through Hurricane Katrina last fall, which he called a "horrible, horrible event." The hurricane wiped out power, water, navigation and communica- tions to the airport, which then served as a makeshift hospital for between 8,000 and 10,000 people, including 27 babies who were born there and 20 people who died there.

"We started at a pretty low point in late August and early September," he said. "It was a remarkable thing."

Before New Orleans, Williams directed the Dayton, Ohio, airport and worked for Airport Group International, a private company with airport operations in London and Bolivia. He also worked for USAir, now known as USAirways, as the regional director of properties. As a lawyer in Utah, he helped write the 1983 bond that paid for the Western Airlines hub at the Salt Lake airport.

He's now looking ahead to the Salt Lake airport's future, including the possibility of a nonstop European flight.

"Everyone will say they think it's a great idea, but it is hard to consistently fill those planes, because Europe can be a very seasonal market in terms of vacations," Williams said. "As a longer-range goal to evaluate, is there the potential that Salt Lake City can have nonstop service to somewhere in Europe?"

Williams also wants to take a hard look at ideas for the passenger terminal and see what would be required to update the current plan, which is 10 years old. "The world has changed a lot since the mid-'90s," he said.

The New Orleans Airport handled around 10 million passengers each year and 166 daily flights on 14 airlines before Hurricane Katrina hit. Seven months later, the flights have dwindled to about half the pre-hurricane volume.

The Salt Lake airport handled 22 million passengers in 2005, most of whom were Delta customers. Overall, Salt Lake City International Airport handles about twice the volume that New Orleans did, Williams said.

Williams will replace Russ Pack, who has been Salt Lake's interim airport director. Pack will return to his previous post as the director of administration and commercial services.

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E-mail: kswinyard@desnews.com