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Kimberly Becker with the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, announced her retirement Thursday. (John Gibbins \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\nKimberly Becker, the president and chief executive of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, will retire in 2026 after a 40-year career in aviation, she announced Thursday.<\/p>\n
Under her tenure, which began in 2017, the airport recovered from the coronavirus pandemic, saw a record-high number of passengers in 2024, built a new Terminal 1 and grew its international reach.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy decision to retire from the Airport Authority brings to close a challenging, fulfilling, and deeply rewarding 40-year career in the aviation industry,\u201d Becker, 62, said. \u201cAviation has taken me around the globe and given me the opportunity to make a difference in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kimberly Becker with the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, announced her retirement Thursday. (John Gibbins \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
One of her most meaningful achievements at the airport, Becker added, \u201chas been the opportunity to lead several transformative initiatives that have strengthened the Authority\u2019s strategic position and expanded its impact across the region and industry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Becker made a deep imprint on the airport\u2019s vision and operations, said Gil Cabrera, the authority\u2019s board chair.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has guided (the airport) through significant challenges and spearheaded a transformation that will enhance the customer experience for decades to come,\u201d Cabrera said. \u201cIt has been a privilege and honor to work with her.<\/p>\n
Becker led several major capital improvement initiatives, including the $3.8 billion new Terminal 1 program. That is expected to \u201cgenerate more than $4.5 billion for San Diego\u2019s economy and create more than 25,000 jobs that pay $2 billion in wages to local workers,\u201d the airport said.<\/p>\n
In 2019, the airport became North America\u2019s second carbon-neutral airport, after Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.<\/p>\n
Once the coronavirus pandemic struck, toward the middle of her tenure, Becker is credited with helping\u00a0San Diego\u2019s airport recover \u201cfrom historic pandemic lows to achieve an average annual operating revenue growth of 21% and secure over $200 million in federal grants for critical infrastructure in 2024,\u201d the news release said.<\/p>\n
A more recent win: last year a record number of travelers \u2014 25 million \u2014 went through San Diego\u2019s airport.<\/p>\n
Asked in an interview with the Union-Tribune on Thursday what achievement she is most proud of, Becker said the new Terminal 1 is \u201cthe obvious answer\u201d and \u201ca great source of pride for the community.\u201d Yet she emphasized a different kind of victory: The culture she helped create at the authority. She credited her team for being \u201cincredible\u201d and cohesive.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really creating a culture that everybody is trying to further the airport as a team and as an organization, versus maybe department by department,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
One mantra she instilled in others, which has taken root: \u201cBelieve the best in one another.\u201d<\/p>\n
Becker also shared her leadership philosophy: \u201cI think my objective is to make everybody understand that no matter what your job is, you have an important role in the success of this airport,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is the way I approach things and ask the rest of the organization to approach things \u2014 make sure people know the value of what they do here. That made everybody understand their purpose and have a purpose-focused organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before coming to San Diego, Becker was the director of aviation for Mineta San Jos\u00e9 International Airport. She also held operations and environmental positions at Hollywood Burbank Airport (formerly named Lockheed Air Terminal) and New Jersey\u2019s Teterboro Airport.<\/p>\n
For her efforts and achievements, Becker has earned multiple recognitions in recent years. In San Diego, she was named Woman of the Year by the San Diego Chapter of Advancing Women in Transportation and CEO of the Year in the government category, awarded by the San Diego Business Journal. The San Diego Chamber of Commerce granted Becker a Moving San Diego Forward award. Beyond San Diego, she won an aviation industry award when she was named \u201cDirector of the Year \u2013 Large Hub Airports\u201d by Airport Experience News, a trade publication.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe interviewed a lot of very well-qualified people,\u201d said the airport authority\u2019s former chair, April Boling, when Becker was hired in 2017. \u201cUltimately, we were looking for someone with a collaborative leadership style, someone willing to work with the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
She will stay on through mid-March 2026 and help with the transition of her successor, which will be found through a global search. Becker\u2019s total wages in 2024 were $604,570, with an additional $120,840 in health and retirement benefits, according to state records.<\/p>\n
In retirement Becker said she plans to travel, but at a less rushed pace than she did for work. She will spend time with family. And she looks forward to living a life that is less governed by schedules than her career in aviation has been.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like having a wide open slate at this point,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: October 16, 2025 at 4:05 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kimberly Becker, the president and chief executive of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, will retire in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[387,181,74,76,75,1696,5277],"class_list":{"0":"post-9120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-san-diego","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news","13":"tag-top-stories-sdut","14":"tag-tourism"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}