2021 Airport Business Top 40 Under 40: Francisco Partida, C.M.
Francisco Partida grew up among airplanes and airports. His father was a regional airports manager for Mexicana Airlines during the 1980s and introduced him to the industry. Before his 18th birthday, Partida was already pursuing a pilot’s licenses and ratings in a flight school in San Antonio.
“That only further solidified my desire to make a career in aviation,” Partida said. “After 15 years of flying corporate planes, an opportunity opened and I transitioned to become part of the airport management team, where I can continue to grow and try to leave a mark in the industry.”
Partida is the special projects manager for Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport, city of Brownsville, Texas. He manages airport marketing, air service development, business and industrial development, as well as manages airport AP/AR staff.
Partida prepares air service presentations, attends conferences and airline headquarter meetings. He presents to both airlines and to local organizations to generate tangible support for airline incentives and continued patronage of the airport.
Marketing under Partida has shown growth in the double digits for revenues generated while showing savings for promotional marketing the airport purchases.
He monitors all of the airport’s social media accounts on what is an exhausting 24/7 schedule and responds to comments and questions from the public, maintaining a professional impression for this critical branch of exposure
Partida works closely with both of the city’s incentive corporations to aid business and industrial development. He provides both leads for business development to them and supports any potential developer or tenant that come through the corporation’s contacts. This support might be rate setting, preparation of benefits lists, generating prospectus for available land and other support documentation for local, airport, or even state benefits. He jointly responds to RFI’s for economic development for both open-calls and targeted RFIs.
Partida manages up to five staff that process accounts payable and receivable invoices, generate budget and financial reports, assists in preparing budget documents, tracks POs and requisitions and handles virtually all office disciplinary and staff development tasks. He schedules training, tracks progress and renewal/recertification and researches emerging trends and other development opportunities in order to continue enhancing staff.
“Even after 20 years of being involved in aviation, I am still in awe of the wonder that this industry is. To think that only 118 years ago the Wright brothers achieved the first sustained powered flight, to all the technological advances, or better said leaps that humankind has in such a short period of time; Especially when you look at history, for centuries humans used to travel / move by foot, boats, and animals, a trip around the world took a lifetime then” he said. “Now, thanks to aviation, we can have breakfast in New York and dinner in Dubai. It is a very dynamic environment.”
