Jim Butler

Jim was appointed Gatwick’s Chief Financial Officer in September 2021 and was simultaneously named a Managing Director, and later Partner, at Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a part of Blackrock. He is responsible for all aspects of London Gatwick Airport’s financial management and leads and provides strategic direction to a team covering accounting and controls, financial planning, tax, treasury and investor relations, helping execute the overall Gatwick strategy.  He is also responsible for the airport’s regulatory strategy and execution as Gatwick is one of two airports in the UK that is economically regulated.

Prior to that, Jim served in various roles at American Airlines since 1996 across the commercial, finance and operations areas, finishing as Senior Vice President of Airport Operation and Cargo.  In this role, Jim led all airport operations and strategic initiatives at American’s more than 300 airports operating over 3000 daily flights across the United States, Caribbean, Latin America, Europe and the Pacific. He was also responsible for the airline’s Cargo business and led American’s COVID response.  Across his over 25 years of airline experience, his other roles at American included President of Cargo and Managing Director of Commercial Planning and Performance, where he was responsible for American’s mainline and regional fleet, network profitability analysis, large-scale strategic project oversight and commercial budgets.  He was later responsible for American’s commercial business plan through restructuring and was named to the team responsible for integrating American Airlines and US Airways as the head of commercial integration.

Jim has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Board of Airline Representatives UK, the IATA Cargo Committee, the A4A Cargo Executive Council and, more recently, the UK’s Aviation Council. Jim earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Hotel Management from Cornell University and a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management. He is fluent in Spanish, is a licensed private pilot and lives in London with his wife Sharon, son Alex and daughter Reagan.