Not to be too much of a wise-ass, Mike, but you could cut out the career ladder entirely buy just building your own airport, and doing whatever you want with it. Voila. There are quite a lot of private air fields around western Pennsylvania (three right around my little town), and I have to assume most rural places. Of course, I assume you mean manager of a big, international airport. In that case, I'd have to defer to Roger's advice unless you've got a real big yard. Evan McElravy emcelr@po-box.mcgill.ca >> What does it take actually? How do you 'work your way up?' What skills does >> it take?