Those who follow Christina Cassotis on social media probably know the quintessential stories she tells about her life as CEO of Pittsburgh International Airport, and what came before that. They know that she spent most of her life in the Boston area, where she “deliberately flunked out of college,” was cut off by her parents, “learned diplomacy by waiting tables,” went back to school to study English, then got an MBA from MIT, had a son, briefly owned a children’s boutique in Maine, was laid off from a job as an aviation consultant and took an interview to run the Allegheny County Airport Authority with no intention of taking the job.
“Don’t worry it will only be for three years. Then I’ll find something else,” she told her husband after accepting the offer. Careful followers can tell from her frequent posts, which are written not in paragraphs but in stanzas, that Ms. Cassotis reads and writes a lot of stories. That she’s quick with an analogy, especially an aviation-themed one. That she curses freely. And that she carries herself with the confidence of someone who has worked hard to curate it.
Read more at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Originally published: October 26, 2025
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