Inside Heathrow: Leading One of the World’s Most Complex Operations with Javier Echave (COO, Heathrow Airport)

In this episode of The Curious Advantage Podcast, Paul Ashcroft, Simon Brown and Garrick Jones speak with Javier Echave, Chief Operating Officer of Heathrow Airport, about what it takes to lead one of the world’s most complex operations.

Heathrow is more than an airport. It is a city of 90,000 people, bringing together 400 companies and serving around 85 million passengers every year. Javier explains how curiosity, clear communication and disciplined decision-making help keep this vast interconnected system moving.

Drawing on his experience leading through the pandemic and Heathrow’s 2025 power outage, Javier shares how leaders can make difficult decisions with imperfect information, create psychological safety during a crisis and design organisations for reliability rather than recovery. He also explores why leadership is not about making people great, but reminding them how great they already are.

Find out more about Javiers work:
Javiers LinkedIn
Heathrow Airport Website

The Curious Advantage explores curiosity and its growing importance in the digital age. From history, neuroscience, and anthropology to business and culture, it takes the widest possible view of curiosity. At its heart is the ‘Sailing the 7C’s of Curiosity’ model, a practical framework to help individuals harness curiosity as a power skill for growth and transformation.

The Curious Advantage Podcast is executive produced by Jessica Wickham and Aliki Paolinelis. Audio editing by Danny Cross and video editing by Jessica Wickham.