{"id":22801,"date":"2025-04-01T19:11:44","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T23:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.atl.com\/?page_id=22801"},"modified":"2026-02-04T17:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T22:13:10","slug":"ricky-smith","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dev.atl.com\/atl\/about-atl\/leadership\/ricky-smith\/","title":{"rendered":"Ricky Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” content_placement=”middle” css=”.vc_custom_1467743393622{background-image: url(http:\/\/one.atl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/ATL.com-Header-Leadership.jpg?id=1487) !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: cover !important;}”][vc_column el_class=”box3″ offset=”vc_hidden-xs”][vc_custom_heading text=”Leadership” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:50|text_align:left|color:%23ffffff” google_fonts=”font_family:Cabin%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C500%2C500italic%2C600%2C600italic%2C700%2C700italic|font_style:600%20bold%20regular%3A600%3Anormal” css=”.vc_custom_1467743399604{padding-bottom: 4% !important;}”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row 0=””][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”24382″ img_size=”300×300″ onclick=”custom_link” img_link_target=”_blank” css=”.vc_custom_1770243150796{margin-top: 15px !important;}” link=”https:\/\/dev.atl.com\/atl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Elise_Durham_headshot_vEmail_square.png”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1743549207446{margin-top: -25px !important;margin-left: -50px !important;}”]\n

Ricky Smith<\/h2>\n

Airport General Manager<\/h5>\n

As the Airport general manager of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport\u2014the world\u2019s busiest and most efficient airport\u2014Ricky Smith leads one of the most critical aviation and economic hubs globally. He is responsible for the overall governance, strategic direction, and operational oversight of an airport that serves more than 108 million passengers annually, facilitates over 2,700 daily aircraft operations, and generates more than $750 million in annual operating revenue, reinforcing ATL\u2019s status as an economic powerhouse.<\/p>\n

Mr. Ricky Smith most recently served as executive director and CEO of Maryland Aviation Administration (MAA), where he was responsible for the management and operations of Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, Martin State Airport, and regional aviation activities throughout the State of Maryland.<\/p>\n

Smith has more than 30 years of aviation management experience working in Baltimore and Cleveland. Since returning to BWI Marshall in 2015, Smith led the airport to five consecutive record-setting years for passengers, including restoring BWI Marshall as the busiest airport in the Washington\/Baltimore region and the Best Airport in North America for Customer Service according to Airport Council International.<\/p>\n

He established a culture of performance, customer service, safety, and innovation, leading the airports to receive several other national and regional awards for customer service, capital development, and marketing including Emmy Awards in 2018 and 2019. In 2017, the LaunchPad program was started to enable minority-owned micro-businesses the opportunity to participate in BWI Marshall\u2019s thriving food and retail program without barriers to entry. In 2015, he launched the BWI Marshall Youth Initiative aimed at introducing youth in Baltimore City to careers in aviation and transportation. To date, over 100 youths have participated in this program.<\/p>\n

He has been recognized as the \u2018Best State Executive for Minority Business Enterprise\u2019 by the Maryland Washington Minority Companies Association (2022), \u2018Leon C. Watkins Guardian Award\u2019 recipient by Airports Council International\/North America (2020), \u2018Man of the Year\u2019 by Women Transportation Seminar (2019), \u2018Leadership in Excellence\u2019 by Leadership Anne Arundel (2019), \u2018Power 10 CEO\u2019 by the Baltimore Business Journal (2018), \u2018People Who Move America\u2019 by the Boys Scouts of America (2018), \u2018Thomas G. Newsome Founder\u2019s Leadership Award\u2019 by the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (2018), \u2018Influential Marylander\u2019 by The Daily Record (2017), the Maryland Washington Minority Companies Association \u2018Black History Hero\u2019 award (2017), \u2018Most Influential CEO in Northeast Ohio\u2019 by Crain\u2019s Magazine (2014, 2013), \u2018National Executive of the Year\u2019 by the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (2010), and \u2018Congressional Achievement Award\u2019 from Congressman Elijah Cummings (2006).[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” content_placement=”middle” css=”.vc_custom_1467743393622{background-image: url(http:\/\/one.atl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/ATL.com-Header-Leadership.jpg?id=1487) !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: cover !important;}”][vc_column el_class=”box3″ offset=”vc_hidden-xs”][vc_custom_heading text=”Leadership” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:50|text_align:left|color:%23ffffff” google_fonts=”font_family:Cabin%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C500%2C500italic%2C600%2C600italic%2C700%2C700italic|font_style:600%20bold%20regular%3A600%3Anormal” css=”.vc_custom_1467743399604{padding-bottom: 4% !important;}”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row 0=””][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”24382″ img_size=”300×300″ onclick=”custom_link” img_link_target=”_blank” css=”.vc_custom_1770243150796{margin-top: 15px !important;}” link=”https:\/\/dev.atl.com\/atl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Elise_Durham_headshot_vEmail_square.png”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1743549207446{margin-top: -25px !important;margin-left: -50px !important;}”] Ricky Smith Airport General Manager As the Airport general manager of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport\u2014the world\u2019s busiest and most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"parent":358,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"BlankCanvas.php","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-22801","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.atl.com\/atl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.atl.com\/atl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.atl.com\/atl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.atl.com\/atl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.atl.com\/atl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22801"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dev.atl.com\/atl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24384,"href":"https:\/\/dev.atl.com\/atl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22801\/revisions\/24384"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.atl.com\/atl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.atl.com\/atl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}