Cheers to Mr Hockaday. Photo: Gatwick Airport

Wednesday 18th March 2015

Move of the Month 3/15

Darren Hockaday is en route from London Overground to Gatwick

Darren Hockaday is cleared for landing as HR Director at Gatwick Airport (spent four hours on that one). He moves from trains to planes, as he is leaving a highly successful term as HRD at London Overground, which saw him win Best HR Director at the HR Excellence awards, rated as part of Personnel Today’s Best HR Team, and ranked 8th most influential HR practitioner by HR Magazine. Quite a trophy haul.

Taking over as HRD at Gatwick is something of a return to his roots, as Airbus was where he had his first stint in HR, having previously tried  his hand at various jobs at Outward Bound, Aldi and HSBC.

It’s a tumultuous time for Gatwick, as it competes with Heathrow for rights to build a new runway, with potentially billions of pounds and thousands of jobs on the line. The recommendation from the Airlines Commission is expected in the summer, after which the new government will be under a lot of pressure to finalise a decision.

Even without a new runway, 2014 was a record year for the airport, with passenger numbers at their highest ever, showing a year-on-year growth of 7.6%.

Although it isn’t known which airport will win out, International Airlines Group boss Willie Walsh has tipped Gatwick to be the eventual victor. “My view is that the third runway at Heathrow is not going to happen,” he says. So it could be a good bet that Hockaday will be overseeing the biggest period of change in Gatwick’s history, which will probably be a challenge even with his wealth of experience in the transport sector.

Whatever happens, he will be the difference maker for tens of millions of holidaymakers. We wish him a safe and pleasant journey.

About the author

Jerome Langford

Jerome is a graduate in Philosophy from St Andrews, who alternately spends time writing about HR and staring wistfully out of windows, thinking about life’s bigger questions: Why are we here? How much lunch is too much lunch? What do you mean exactly by ‘final warning’?