AirIT has announced that Bob Montgomery, vice president of airport affairs for Southwest Airlines, will be the keynote speaker at its 18th Annual User Conference & Symposium.

The event will be held in Las Vegas, April 25th-27th, 2016.

Montgomery has been with Southwest since 1977, and has held a number of positions in the Operating and Finance Departments prior to filling the properties and facilities and airport affairs role. 

He also serves on the oversight committee for the Transportation Research Board’s Airport Cooperative Research Program, at the request of the Secretary of Transportation.

Montgomery is responsible for the acquisition and development of all of Southwest Airlines’ facilities nationwide, including all airport space, reservations centres, maintenance hangars, data centres, training centres, headquarters and other operational and technical facilities.

Additionally, he is responsible for representing Southwest to all airport operators and City Governments, and works with them to develop their capital and operating budgets, as well as development programs.

The theme of Montgomery’s keynote at this year’s AirIT User Conference & Symposium will be: “Airlines @ Airports: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow”. 

Commented Betros Wakim, AirIT chief executive: “We are elated to have Bob Montgomery keynoting our annual user event.

“He is a true industry visionary and we look forward to hearing Bob’s perspective on what he sees as the past, present, and future of mutually beneficial airline-airport relationships.”