{"id":31540,"date":"2025-05-05T13:22:32","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T13:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/?p=31540"},"modified":"2025-05-05T13:22:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T13:22:33","slug":"mac-selects-kelly-gerads-as-director-of-reliever-airports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/news\/airports\/mac-selects-kelly-gerads-as-director-of-reliever-airports\/%20","title":{"rendered":"MAC Selects Kelly Gerads as Director of Reliever Airports"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/metroairports.org\/our-airports\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/metroairports.org\/our-airports\">Metropolitan Airports Commission<\/a> (MAC) has promoted Kelly Gerads to director of reliever airports, responsible for the operation and maintenance of its six general aviation airports in the Twin Cities metro area: St. Paul Downtown Airport, Flying Cloud Airport, Anoka County-Blaine Airport, Crystal Airport, Airlake Airport, and Lake Elmo Airport.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"502\" src=\"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Kelly-Gerads-edit.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-31541\" style=\"width:233px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Kelly-Gerads-edit.jpg 400w, https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Kelly-Gerads-edit-239x300.jpg 239w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>MAC Director of Reliever Airports Kelly Gerads. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Airports Commission.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Gerads was promoted from assistant director of reliever airports, a position she\u2019s held since 2007. She\u2019s spent more than 30 years at the MAC in positions focused on the operations or administration of the MAC\u2019s general aviation airports. Also known as reliever airports, they serve a dynamic flying community and support aviation-related businesses while also helping to relieve congestion at the MAC\u2019s flagship commercial airport, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cKelly Gerads will certainly leverage her wealth of history, experience and connections in her new leadership role,\u201d said Brian Ryks, CEO of the MAC. \u201cWith such a strong foundation, we\u2019re excited to see her drive innovation and collaboration that maximizes the service to our airport users and businesses, while maintaining the great relationships with the many communities near those airports.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to overseeing all day-to-day operations and maintenance, Gerads will be responsible for managing more than 850 leases and all commercial tenant operations at the six airports. She will also lead the effort to attract new investments and development that support the airports\u2019 strategic growth. MAC general aviation airports supported more than 372,000 aircraft operations in 2024.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gerads holds a master\u2019s degree in business administration from the University of St. Thomas and a bachelor\u2019s degree in aviation management from St. Cloud State University. She\u2019s an accredited airport executive with the American Association of Airport Executives and a member of its Great Lakes Chapter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) has promoted Kelly Gerads to director of reliever airports, responsible for the operation and maintenance of its six general aviation airports in the Twin Cities metro area: St. Paul Downtown Airport, Flying Cloud Airport, Anoka County-Blaine Airport, Crystal Airport, Airlake Airport, and Lake Elmo Airport. Gerads was promoted from assistant [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-airports","category-minnesota"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31542,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31540\/revisions\/31542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}