Our Team
We love our people! J|D gathers elite professionals from varied disciplines and cultures to enrich our insights in the global aviation industry. Experience the wealth of knowledge and innovation that only diverse perspectives can offer.
Bill Flock
Director of Finance
Airline Services
Mr. Flock has nearly 30 years of airport/airline management consulting experience and has developed specializations in airport financial planning and aviation demand forecasting. Mr. Flock has worked on major consulting assignments for a wide range of airports from large hub connecting hub airports such as Chicago O’Hare, Denver International and Phoenix Sky Harbor to local general aviation airports such as DuPage and Willow Run airports. Mr. Flock also has significant experience working with medium and small hub airports such Memphis International, Tucson International, Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport, and Austin-Bergstrom International.
Mr. Flock’s multi-disciplined experience in airport financial planning and aviation demand forecasting provides him with the expertise to look at airport development challenges from both an economic and air service perspective. This background provides him with the understanding that the most sophisticated financial plans can fail to predict a project’s ultimate financial feasibility unless the aviation demand side of the equation has been thoroughly examined and realistically projected.
Mr. Flock’s previous experience includes numerous financial planning and bond feasibility studies supporting the financing of major capital development programs at a diverse group of airports including Cleveland Hopkins International, Chicago Midway, Mineta San Jose International, Toronto Lester B. Pearson, Phoenix Sky Harbor, Tulsa International and LaGuardia Airport. Other specialized studies include the an airport parking/Conrac development study for Detroit Metropolitan, an on-airport hotel feasibility analysis for San Francisco International, air service analysis at Denver reviewing a potential merger of Southwest and Frontier airlines, and a ground transportation study for the Houston Airport System.
Q&A with Bill
What Do You Love About This Industry?
It’s a stimulating environment. If you’re paying attention, you can learn something new every day.
What industry changes or trends do you think will have the biggest impact?
The middle of the week used to be peak travel due to business travelers. Now that people are working from home and hybrid schedules are more common travel is starting to spread out over the entire week. Also, as baby boomers retire and travel more airports are going to have to adjust to accommodate the older demographic.
How did you come to work at J|D?
I’ve known the founders, and senior leaders, for over 20 years we started in the industry together.
What is the best part of your job?
When I get to interact with people: clients, consultants from other firms, and colleagues, and talk with them about the industry. It’s a nice change from research and data analysis which I do a lot of. It makes work-life great when you get along with those you work with.
What advice would you give someone starting out in this industry?
Experiment early and quickly in your career and then pick something that you are interested in and really focus on that one subject area and become a specialist in that area. I became more of a generalist though if I had to do it all again, I’d narrow my focus.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
I live in Chicago, I spend a lot of time just walking, exploring the city and being part of the local neighborhood.
Where is your favorite place to be?
Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan, NYC. It is an oasis in the middle of a bustling city. You cross the street and enter the park and suddenly you’re in a quiet place surrounded by 100 year old trees.
Where is the best place you’ve traveled to and why?
I love NYC. It’s one of my favorite places to visit, and Washington D.C. But I do plan to go to Norway and see the Auora Borealis.
What would you do (for a career) if you weren’t doing this?
Something completely different like running a small manufacturing or service business with 5 or 6 employees.
What’s something that you’ve always wanted to try or learn?
A second language, I’ve always been impressed with multilingual people. The airport introduced an International Ambassadors Program, and they hired people who spoke at least 3 languages and the list of languages they speak covers the globe. What a remarkable skill to have.
If you could pick any superpower, what would it be and why?
A super ability for logic and stoicism. I’ve always been impressed with the philosophers who have a supernatural ability to logic things out unemotionally not in a cold-hearted way but who can maintain a sense reason during stressful and pressure filled times.
Any book recommendations?
‘The One Thing’ is a business philosophy/self-improvement book which teaches you to focus on one thing at a time, and that changing only one thing will have influence on everything else. I loved the simplicity of the message. It contained a neat digestible theory that you could apply.
Anything else you’d like to share?
I love books, love to read, and have a library that has grown out of control. Reading about all different subjects and topics, history, novels, and philosophy is an interest of mine.
