Rupen Philloura

As Director of the Terminal Operations Division for the Miami-Dade Aviation Department, Rupen Philloura is responsible for supervising the operations of all terminal facilities at Miami International Airport, including directing and supervising a staff of approximately 200 employees.

His duties include serving as the Aviation Department’s liaison to the airport’s federal agencies, employee unions and airline station managers; overseeing the 24-hour operations of MIA’s Airport Operations Center; and overseeing the airport’s Lost and Found office.

Before joining the Aviation Department in 2020, Philloura gained more than two decades of airport operations expertise at medium and large hub airports.

In 2019, he founded Airport Intelligence Metrics (AiX), a passenger-forecasting platform for airport executives. AiX provides day-to-day efficiency solutions and can also help with resource planning for various departments at an airport. In 2017, Philloura founded Airport Groupe, an aviation consulting firm that specializes in optimizing airport operations through IT solutions and putting processes in place. The company features a group of subject matter experts who advise airports across the globe. In 2017, Philloura also served as the General Manager of Airport Services, Operations and Security for San Francisco International Airport.

Previously, he served as an aviation consultant with BRAINFORCE AG, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, the leading provider of Interim Management Services in Europe with subsidiaries in Germany, Austria, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, Hong Kong and China. The international BRAINFORCE M.A.S.T.E.R.3-Pool® contains carefully selected and specialized interim managers and project managers with many years of industry-critical professional experience, who can be deployed on a short notice for a short contract period to handle a large workload.

Philloura spent 14 years at Tampa International Airport (TPA) in progressive levels of responsibility, culminating with serving as Assistant Director of Operations from 2007 to 2015, when he oversaw airside, landside and security operations, as well as the airport’s Airport Operations Center. Previously at TPA, he held the position of International Terminal Manager, serving as the primary liaison between the airport and airlines, federal agencies, concessions, ground handlers and other vendors.

Philloura earned a Bachelor of Science in Aviation Business Administration from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.