Our diverse team of aviation experts combine innovative thinking, commercial experience and breakthrough technologies to progress further, faster.
With deep industry knowledge and a heritage as trusted advisors across the aviation industry, our team are ready to support airlines, airports and the wider sector in finding opportunity from their most complex challenges.
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Global Head of Aviation
Global Head of Aviation
Richard Davey is PA’s Global Head of Aviation, and the Founder and CEO of Nyras. He has over 30 years’ experience in the aviation industry and leads projects focusing on strategy, airline mergers and partnerships, capacity management and slots, airline operations, and transactions. Some of his key recent projects include:
Senior Commercial Aviation Expert
Senior Commercial Aviation Expert
David Huttner is part of our Management Group. His previous roles include Head of Commercial for Virgin Blue Australia where he managed the growth strategy. As one of three founding members of the airline’s top leadership, he helped guide the company to the most successful IPO in Virgin Group history. He was also appointed to the board of Vueling at the time of its IPO.
His global career spans more than 20 years and covers all areas of the aviation industry, from sales and distribution through to product delivery and airline restructuring. He has advised some of the world’s leading airlines, airports and industry partners on a range of projects relating to strategy and commercial services.
Areas of focus include low-cost carrier strategies, competitive response, capacity management and slots, and airport and airline commercial advisory. Some of his key assignments include:
Aviation Finance & Fleet Advisory expert
Aviation Finance & Fleet Advisory expert
Nigel Addison Smith was CFO of First Choice Airways for six years where he oversaw aircraft purchase and financing. Nigel also held the position of Group Financial Controller of First Choice Holidays PLC and subsequently became CFO of ebookers PLC, the online travel agency.
Previously, Nigel was CFO of UK Export Finance (ECGD), the UK’s export credit agency, where he was involved in financing Airbus, Boeing and Bombardier aircraft. Nigel has gained significant board level, M&A, financing and financial management experience, and now advises airlines, airports and other aviation businesses.
Nigel has helped numerous airlines to navigate change efficiently. He has strong experience in both the acquisition and sale of aviation businesses and he leads projects that focus on airline restructuring, fleet advisory, airport advisory and benchmarking. Some of his assignments include:
Senior Aviation Strategy and Finance expert
Senior Aviation Strategy and Finance expert
Iain May is the former CEO of Bland Group, where he led their restructuring following the sale of GB Airways to easyJet. He also held CFO positions at GB Airways, First Choice Airways and Jazeera Airways.
At GB Airways, Iain managed a successful company-wide profit improvement and turnaround plan and led the sale of the business to easyJet in 2008 for £103.5 million, along with the sale of Heathrow slots for a further £90m.
Iain has also led and supported complex cross border transactions and international airline restructuring assignments. He has developed our bespoke airline benchmarking methodology, which identifies areas of competitive weakness and then supports implementation of business change programmes.
Iain brings 20 years’ experience to MRO assignments, from both in-house airline and consultancy perspectives. He combines engineering finance and lease management expertise with a deep understanding of how to mitigate engineering cost risk within an airline. He has led several significant assignments in this area, including:
Iain is a Chartered Management Accountant (ACMA), holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Management from Henley Business School, and was awarded ‘Most Innovative Deal of the Year 2005’ by the Airfinance Journal for leading Jazeera’s initial four-aircraft financing transaction worth $150 million.
Aviation expert
Aviation expert
Mark is the former CFO of Jazeera Airways, a Kuwait based LCC, where he led the business plan development and growth of the airline from post launch to listing on the Kuwait Stock Exchange.
Prior to that, Mark spent 16 years at British Airways in various senior commercial and operational financial controller positions, including six years in Germany. As the Finance Director of subsidiary airline Deutsche BA, Mark played a lead role in the sale of the company to an investor. He has project managed the set-up of an aircraft leasing company in the Middle East for an investor and spent five years as a board advisor, responsible for all commercial leasing and aircraft financing.
Mark has 25 years’ experience in the profitable development of aviation businesses, including establishing start-ups, managing business restructuring and leading major change projects in established organisations. He also has recent experience in aircraft financing and leasing, and leads projects that require a focus on financial impact analysis, airline benchmarking, business performance improvements and fleet advisory. Some of his recent assignments include:
Aviation expert
Aviation expert
Hares Wardak graduated from Cranfield University with a master’s (MSc) in Air Transport Management.
Prior to that, he achieved a first-class BSc (Hons) in Aviation Logistics/Management and a degree in Aviation Maintenance Engineering. Through nine years of studies in the Netherlands, United States and United Kingdom, Hares has acquired an in-depth level of knowledge on many aspects of the aviation industry, including airlines, airports and MRO.
While at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Hares analysed the network of multiple airlines and traffic changes at multiple European airports, and evaluated the capabilities of the Boeing 787. He worked closely with the Strategy and Air Traffic Analysis department of Schiphol to improve their understanding of the influence of Boeing 787 on hub airports. In this respect, Hares has investigated opportunities and threats for the airport’s strategic direction, thus providing various recommendations to Schiphol Group’s long-term strategic plan.
During his time at TUIfly Netherlands, Hares collaborated with an IT solution provider to design and implement an automated budgeting system for the engineering department to manage aircraft modification costs. Because of this system, decision-making regarding future expenditure and operational efficiency was materially improved.
Hares is a key member of the aviation team in a range of projects directly relating to airports and airlines
Aviation expert
Aviation expert
Maxime Debry graduated from Cranfield University with a master’s (MSc) in Air Transport Management and from EMLyon Business School with a MSc in Management.
He joined Airbus and oversaw the digitalisation of the complex sale contract negotiation process, gaining digital project management experience and exposure to aircraft sales strategies. Prior to that, he worked at Lyon airport in the Corporate Strategy department. Maxime was involved in the privatisation process of the airport operator. To highlight the airport development potential, he conducted impact analyses and contributed to the Memorandum of Information.
Through six years of study and working experiences in France, the UK, Singapore and China, Maxime has developed multicultural management skills. He has also gained significant exposure to airline and airport strategies, as well as digital and distribution projects.
Aviation Expert
Aviation Expert
Greta Steponaviciute holds a master’s (MSc) in Air Transport Management from Cranfield University and a BSc in Psychology from Vilnius University.
While at Cranfield University, Greta also developed a business-oriented mind-set and built an extensive knowledge of commercial airline activity, strategic partnerships and network development, writing her MSc thesis on Joint Ventures and Airline Alliances. She also conducted BSc research on ATC, where she gained knowledge of the cognitive ATC work challenges and benefits of initiatives such as A-CDM.
In the past six years, Greta has studied in the United Kingdom, France and Lithuania, and has worked in two aviation training centres in Northern Europe, as well as in two ACMI and charter airlines operated in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Before working at aviation training centres, Greta had been cabin crew, where she built a broad understanding of the operational side of aviation and the challenges related to rising crew costs and a shortage of experienced pilots and engineers.
Senior Associate
Senior Associate
Luca Ciarlini is the former Head of Operations and Network in Alitalia. His responsibilities spanned from managing all operational areas, including ground, maintenance airworthiness, crew, fleet and the OCC platform, to the development of the hub systems within the Skyteam alliance, the day-by-day management of revenues, fleet optimisation and relationships with partner airlines.
As Senior Vice President of Network and Commercial at Alitalia, Luca was responsible for re-designing the airline network on a complementary two hubs system, in order to boost connecting flows and expand long haul network. Luca developed the new OCC for the airline and integrated all operational process with the hub control centres in Rome Fiumicino and Milan–Malpensa airports, improving operational performance in line with the five large European competitors. Luca was also Managing Director of Flightcare, a subsidiary of the FCC Group and later Managing Director of Aviapartner Italy, the airport services company where he was heavily involved in restructuring ground operations services to airlines.
Luca is highly involved in a range of projects for Nyras directly relating to business restructuring, commercial services, fleet advisory, airport advisory and business performance improvement. Some of his key assignments include:
Senior Associate
Senior Associate
Sinéad Conroy is an aviation professional with extensive experience in multi-site environments. Sinéad was a highly regarded former member of the Ryanair management team. For more than five years, she held the position of General Manager, UK and European Airports at the airline, where she directed a team of more than 400 ground staff at its largest base.
Sinéad has since worked on a range of overseas projects as an independent consultant. She conducted a full review of existing ground operations processes for the Chief Operating Officer of Air Deccan and then oversaw the design and implementation of revised working practices and a new organisational structure in line with her own recommendations. She has also completed several inaugural services set-ups and airport operation start-ups for Jetstar Australia, part of the Qantas Group, and has delivered process improvement projects for the Burberry Group, in addition to other retail and international ground handling agents.
Specialising in ground operations, with excellent working knowledge of airline and aerodrome procedures, Sinéad has been involved in a range of projects for Nyras directly relating to airport advisory, business performance improvement and airline benchmarking. Some of her recent assignments include:
Senior Associate
Senior Associate
Richard Edwards is a sales, distribution, e-commerce and airline IT expert. He began his career at Cathay Pacific Airways, and went on to serve for more than 20 years at senior management level with Amadeus and Abacus. At Amadeus, Richard was responsible for global product and customer support and served as Chief Performance and Process Officer and CIO responsible for internal information systems. He successfully prepared Amadeus for the twin business challenges of global distribution system (GDS) deregulation and the launch of the internet. Under Richard’s guidance, Amadeus introduced new management processes, industrialised customer development and implementations and became one of the first to embrace the internet and open systems technologies and pioneer their use in high-performance operations. As a result, Amadeus was consistently voted best GDS by industry peers.
Prior to joining Amadeus, Richard led the Abacus project team that built the new GDS, and held various commercial and country management positions at Cathay Pacific, before moving to manage the commercial and financial IT systems at the airline.
Richard is highly involved in a range of projects for Nyras directly relating to sales and distribution strategy, airline IT architecture, IT (including PSS), supplier selection and contracts, e-commerce strategy, IT systems development and the cost and best-practice benchmarking of sales and distribution and airline IT. Some of his key assignments include:
Richard is a graduate of Oxford University and has worked in Europe, Asia and North America.
Senior Associate
Senior Associate
Trish Gray is an aeroengine specialist with more than 30 years’ experience in aviation. Trish was Rolls-Royce’s first female technical service representative, based initially in Luton, UK and then in the Middle East.
Following a period as a Powerplant Engineer with Air 2000/First Choice, Trish moved to become bmi’s Powerplant Manager and was subsequently promoted to the position of General Manager, covering all the airline’s technical support departments. Trish’s responsibilities included operational and off-wing maintenance support. This role enabled her to gain significant experience in managing engine selection programmes and contract negotiations.
Trish is heavily involved in a range of projects for Nyras directly relating to MRO and fleet advisory. She provides powerplant technical and financial asset management services to operators and lessors. Some of her key assignments include:
Trained by Rolls-Royce, Trish has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Southampton University. She also gained credentials as an experienced expert witness.
Senior Associate
Senior Associate
Graham Hill began his career as an Operations Research Analyst for British Airways in the 1980s. Since then, he has accumulated more than 30 years’ experience working for blue-chip consultancies such as KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers, as an Interim Head at Toyota and Huawei Technologies and as an independent strategy consultant.
Graham has gained considerable knowledge of marketing, customer management and frequent flyer operations within the aviation industry. He also has extensive experience in marketing, digital operations and customer decision making in the financial services, telecommunications and automotive industries. He is currently on long-term assignment as the Programme Director for the implementation of general data protection regulations for a major UK telecommunications provider.
Some of his recent assignments include:
Graham has a BSc in Biological Sciences from Imperial College, London and a PhD in Biological Sciences from Edinburgh University.
Senior Associate
Senior Associate
Andrew Knuckey was Chief Financial Officer at Flybe, Europe’s largest regional airline, from 2007 to 2014.
Andrew has more than 10 years’ experience in senior airline finance management, covering areas such as managing organic growth, M&A, cost reduction, turnaround and restructuring. He played a leading role in Flybe’s acquisition of BA Connect in 2007, Flybe’s IPO in 2010 and a further £150m equity fund raise in 2014. Prior to Flybe, Andrew had a 24-year career at KPMG, latterly as a partner and director, specialising in audit, transaction and advisory services to the listed and mid-market sectors.
Andrew is highly involved in a range of projects for Nyras directly relating to financial analysis and due diligence, expert witness support and transaction advisory. Some of his key assignments include:
Andrew is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Senior Associate
Senior Associate
Ray Lyons is the former General Manager of Revenue Management and Pricing for British Airways, and Executive Vice President of Network Management for Swissair.
Ray began his career with British Airways in the Operational Research department and served in a number of positions across the airline in both operational and commercial areas during his initial 22 years with British Airways. In his last two roles, Ray was responsible for planning the airline’s network and then its revenue management and pricing before joining Swissair. He was recruited back to British Airways five years later.
Ray is one of the airline industry’s acknowledged experts in revenue management. He is highly involved in a range of projects for Nyras directly relating to commercial services, fleet advisory and business performance improvement. Some of his key assignments include:
Ray holds a BSc (First Class Honours) in Applied Chemistry from the University of Sheffield Hallam and an MSc in Operations Research from the University of Hull.
Senior Associate
Senior Associate
Rod Wilcock is the former Ground Operations Chief for Virgin Australia Aviation Group.
He played a key role in the transformation of Virgin Australia, introducing a competency based and compliance focused safety system, leading industrial relations strategic development, and ensuring engagement between the customer service and industrial delivery organisations. Rod led the development of a Virgin Australia operation that was able to combine the LCC culture with the evolving network carrier that Virgin Australia was to become.
Rod was previously a key member of the British Airways ground operations senior management team responsible for the successful delivery of operations at London Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5. Before that he held high profile operations management roles across British Airways businesses, managing heavily unionised operational workforces both in the air and on the ground. He was a member of several small ‘start up’ executive teams including that of BA CityFlyer.
Rod is an experienced operations executive with 30 years’ in managing aviation operations, transportation and logistics, customer service delivery and regulatory compliance. Rod is highly involved in a range of projects for Nyras directly relating to ground operations, capacity management and slots, airline operations, and business performance improvement. Some of his key assignments include:
He is practiced in the introduction and application of various manpower planning tools including the INFORM suite, Carmen Jepperson and other ground handling systems. He is a former CAA Post holder and held positions on The Civil Aviation Future Pilot Training Steering Group and the National Aviation Industry Board Special Interest Group.
Senior Associate Revenue Management
Senior Associate Revenue Management
Dinaz Zaq has held senior positions in Revenue Management at British Airways, Head of Revenue Management and Pricing at GB Airways and also Head of Revenue Management and Flight Planning at Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL) UK & Ireland.
Dinaz brings a broader perspective to Revenue Management (RM) and driving commercial improvement, having worked with various RM organisations, not only within aviation but also in cruise, hotels and trains.
At GB Airways, Dinaz was an integral part of delivering change and a successful return to profitability, working alongside the CCO, CFO and CEO, which facilitated the sale of the business to easyJet in 2008.
Dinaz has over 20 years’ experience to RM and Pricing. She has led large commercial teams and has an in depth understanding of RM systems and best practice. These include demand forecasting, optimisation, understanding global markets, point of sale control, distribution channels, trend analysis, consumer metrics, competitor monitoring and data reporting systems. She is adept at leveraging these along with channel management, segmentation and overbooking strategy, to increase profitability. She places great emphasis on revenue delivery by setting up of clear and concise targets and KPI metrics.
Highlights of some of her regular achievements include:
Dinaz holds a degree level H.C.I.M.A. qualification from the Metropolitan College, Oxford and also a Diploma in Transport and Hospitality Management.
Senior Associate, In-Flight Catering
Senior Associate, In-Flight Catering
Jim Deary has expertise in in-flight catering and service delivery with particular skills in cost management and operations across both single and multi-site organisations.
As former Service Delivery Director with Alpha Flight services, Jim was responsible for the day-to-day production and delivery of meals and services across multiple sites including 24 flight kitchens and 22 duty free pick and pack locations.
Additionally, Jim has led several major start-ups and operational change projects for clients including British Airways, Air-Fayre and Aer Lingus. He has worked on numerous initiatives involving process design and implementation within both flight and bond operations, transport and final mile restructuring and organisational development, to name but a few.
Senior Associate, Aviation Law, Policy and Regulation
Senior Associate, Aviation Law, Policy and Regulation
Hugh O’Donovan is a barrister who has specialised in aviation law for more than 30 years.
Hugh has acquired global experience and recognition, especially in relation to international air transport policy and regulation. As Head of Aviation Regulatory and Commercial Law at three international City law firms, as well as in private practice at the commercial bar, Hugh has advised on an extensive range of issues including government aviation policy, air transport licensing, airport regulation, airport slots and competition law. Hugh supports clients with business restructuring projects, mergers and start-ups and provides insight on contractual, regulatory, policy and competition law issues. He has drafted both primary and secondary aviation legislation in various jurisdictions. Recent assignments include:
Hugh obtained a BA in Jurisprudence at Oxford University and was called to the bar of England and Wales in 1975. He is a published author of legal works and speaks regularly on topics relating to the legalities of aviation at academic institutions, conferences and seminars around the world.
Senior Associate, Aviation Law and Financing
Senior Associate, Aviation Law and Financing
Richard is a multi-jurisdictional aviation law attorney.
Richard is the founding principal of AVION LAW, an aviation law firm based in Newport Beach, California. Prior to relocating to California in 2013, Richard spent 20 years in Paris where he conceived, founded and developed the Paris office of Stephenson Harwood in his role as Managing Partner.
Richard is valued by his global clientele for his wealth of experience and his responsiveness, precision, pragmatism, business acumen and transparency.
Senior Associate, MRO and Due Diligence
Senior Associate, MRO and Due Diligence
Stuart Schofield is a widely respected aeronautical engineer and airline technical director. He has been involved in many maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) and due diligence projects for clients including Thompson Airways, TUI Airlines, Flybe, Aer Lingus and Bond Helicopters.
Stuart is the former Technical Director for GB Airways and Engineering Director with British Midland Airways (bmi). He has also held senior positions at FFV Aerotech Stansted, where he oversaw the introduction of the wide-body heavy maintenance programme and served as Director of Technical Services and Sales for British Aerospace, where he was responsible for developing the Airbus wide-body maintenance business. In addition, Stuart worked with the team at easyJet on a six-month assignment as interim Chief Engineer.
Some recent key assignments include:
Stuart holds an honours degree in Aero Engineering, an MBA from Lancaster University and is a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society. During his extensive career, Stuart has served on technical committees with AEA, ATA and SBAC.
Senior Associate, Strategy
Senior Associate, Strategy
Chris Tarry spent 20 years as a top-rated sell-side analyst working in the City of London. Since 2002, he has served as an adviser on aviation policy issues to the UK Government, Parliamentary Committees and the UK Civil Aviation Authority.
In addition, Chris has advised airlines, airports, manufacturers and aircraft lessors on a range of strategic issues, including business plan assessments; in-depth reviews around consolidation; company evaluations on behalf of investors; and strategic reviews of and for airlines. Recent key assignments include:
Chris was a member of the European Advisory Panel of All Nippon Airways between 2010 and 2014, a member of IATA’s Vision 2050 Group and a public member of Network Rail.
Senior Associate, Strategic Development and Transformational Change
Senior Associate, Strategic Development and Transformational Change
Nick Tyler’s extensive experience of business change management in both the public and private sectors provides our clients with valuable support relating to strategic development and transformational change.
Over the course of his career, Nick has completed a range of high-profile organisational change projects for UK government departments, including the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Ministry of Defence, and Department of Culture, Media & Sport. He played a key role in facilitating events that culminated in the programme plan for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Nick began his career with NatWest Bank, taking on a variety of roles in capacity planning and project and account management, before becoming the senior manager responsible for planning and reporting company-wide changes in IT management and delivery. His final role as a senior executive saw him develop and implement business excellence across card services at the bank.
Senior Associate, Catering and Buy On-Board
Senior Associate, Catering and Buy On-Board
Robert has extensive airline catering and operations experience and is a leading expert in business transformation and performance improvement programmes within the food, logistics and buy on-board services sector.
Prior to establishing himself as a sought-after interim manager and change consultant, Robert held positions at Alpha Catering Services and LSG Sky Chefs where he was responsible for annual sales in excess of £350m per annum and workforces of more than 3,500 employees operating from multiple airports across Europe, Africa and America.
In addition to new service development and the delivery of sustainable profit growth, Robert supports Nyras on projects relating to operational delivery, process improvement and cost reduction.
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