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Former Qantas executive Andrew Parker has joined the board of Adelaide Airport.
Parker, who served as Qantas’ chief sustainability officer for three years before his departure in 2024, previously worked as a senior vice president at Emirates covering areas such as international affairs and environment.
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“Adelaide and Parafield are two of the country’s finest airport assets and play a crucial role in South Australia’s ongoing growth. I’m excited to work with the Board and executive team to help continue to make Adelaide everyone’s favourite airport,” he said on LinkedIn.
His appointment follows the death of John Ward, a long-standing board member at the airport, last year. Parker will bring his extensive aviation experience to the board, Rob Chapman, chair of Adelaide Airport, said.
“Mr Parker understands both the national and global aviation landscape, and will offer an extraordinary depth of knowledge, particularly in the area of sustainability,” he said.
“Mr Parker’s customer-led insights gained from decades within the leadership teams of two of Adelaide Airport’s largest airline customers, will be invaluable.
“His appointment comes at a time when aviation industry sustainability is more important than ever. Mr Parker’s experience will continue to drive Adelaide Airport as a sustainability leader as well as continue AAL’s collaboration with airlines to develop commercial low-carbon sustainable aviation fuel.”
As Qantas’ chief sustainability officer, Parker had called in 2023 for a sustainable aviation fuel blending mandate to cut aviation emissions, saying several of its destination countries already have SAF blending mandates of 5 to 10 per cent by 2030, and that Australia is well-placed to create a domestic SAF industry.
“Without the right policy settings and signals we will see investment, projects and feedstocks move offshore to places with specific policy support. We look forward to working with government and the rest of the industry to ensure we capitalise on this opportunity for Australia,” he said at the time.
Adelaide Airport in 2024 embarked on a major expansion of its solar panel infrastructure to triple solar capacity.
Sustainability has become an increasing focus for airports as the industry looks to reduce its carbon footprint. Cairns Airport last year signed a deal to transition to 100 per cent renewable energy from 2025, while Brisbane in 2023 became the first in Australia to achieve Airport Council International’s Level 4 Airport Carbon Accreditation.
Newcastle Airport earlier this year was the first in the country to achieve level 4+, the highest carbon accreditation on offer.
