7
PUBLISHER’S COLUMN
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BEST IN AIRSIDE. ON YOUR TEAM.
This October, I had the pleasure of attending the Airport Consultants 
Council annual meeting in Seattle. It wasn’t my first ACC annual 
meeting, nor my first interaction with the group. Back in 2007, 
attending the 29th annual conference in Phoenix was my first stop 
on the journey of launching Airport Improvement magazine. 
Logic could have dictated that my first stop researching the 
viability of an airport magazine should have been a show for airport 
executives. They are vitally important and now figure prominently in 
12 or so articles every issue. But from the beginning, I believed the 
secret sauce for success was to add a group that had largely been 
ignored by other airport publications, the consultants.   
So, I went to ACC and scheduled a series of meetings with the 
heads of airport consulting firms and asked a lot of questions. Not 
surprisingly, the consultants had deep reserves of experience and 
expertise about airports, airport improvement projects and ways 
to safely build the infrastructure our industry needed. I came away 
convinced that these consultants would be valuable voices to 
include in any discussions about successful 
airport projects. Ultimately, the consultant 
perspective didn’t replace the narrative of 
airport executives, rather, it added a layer of 
depth that we hadn’t seen before.
Ever since our first edition in May/June 
2008, the contributions of consultants have 
been essential in this magazine…which is 
one of the reasons we are a member of ACC. Big and small, 
consultants are in virtually every story. And they often help us find 
unique and interesting airport projects to feature. Many of them are 
advertisers, knowing that airport decision-makers read our content.
The success of Airport Improvement didn’t happen in a vacuum. 
A big Thank You goes out to ACC and its member firms.
Cheers!
PAUL BOWERS, PUBLISHER
AirportImprovement.com      September 2026

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