After 21 years’ loyal service, former Universal Stansted md Theresa Wooll has left the company. She was recently married and will soon make a new life for herself in Canada. Stepping into her shoes is Sean Raftery, who for the last year has supplemented his ops manager duties with those of assistant general manager, in order that he might take the reins if Wooll were ever to leave.

Raftery told EBAN: “Theresa developed the company under her leadership and she has left it in a very secure and healthy state. She was very successful here and will be sorely missed.”

Asked how he’ll lead the company from here, Raftery said: “Obviously, I’ve got my own style but it all comes down to the old cliche ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. Theresa and I have worked very closely together in developing a successful formula. I’ve had a lot of input up until now as to how we developed and all I really want to do is take that forward and continue to be leaders in our field.”

Raftery says current traffic levels are good. He said: “Like anyone, we’ve had to keep a close eye on things since September 11. No one really knew what to expect when the events of last year took place. We thought we might be caught in a situation like after the Gulf War when everyone just stopped flying. We haven’t really noticed any drop in traffic; it’s such an unpredictable business, all you can really do is provide a good service and concentrate on giving the customers what they want.

“Right now, we’re very busy and January in particular was busier than it was last year.”