Airport commercial specialists Kim Gray, Mark Entwistle and Alex Avery launch boutique advisory firm Auran : Moodie Davitt Report

UK/INTERNATIONAL. Three renowned airport and transport infrastructure experts have joined forces to create Auran, an independent advisory firm specialising in commercial strategy for airports, transport authorities and complex passenger-led infrastructure assets.

Founded by Mark Entwistle, Alex Avery and Kim Gray, Auran brings together deep in-house operational experience and international commercial consultancy expertise.

Collectively, the founding team has worked across more than 120 airports in over 50 countries, combining senior airport leadership roles and advisory mandates for assets including London Heathrow, New York JFK, Los Angeles, Navi Mumbai, King Salman International and Addis Ababa airports alongside major transport-led developments worldwide.

Together, they bring more than 60 years of collective industry experience.

Auran has been established to support senior leadership teams operating in increasingly complex commercial environments, where investment pressure, operational constraints and changing passenger expectations intersect.

The firm focuses on helping clients define clear, commercially grounded strategies that are practical, deliverable and effective in live operational settings.

Based in London and operating globally, Auran works with airport operators, transport authorities, investors and the design and masterplanning community.

From our experience working as operators, and having visibility across hundreds of airports globally, we see this pattern repeatedly: strategies can look good and sound good but ultimately aren’t practical to implement.

The firm provides senior-led advisory services across commercial strategy, revenue forecasting, space planning, commercial due diligence, masterplanning advisory and strategic customer insight, with a deliberately pragmatic approach focused on clarity, realism and action.

The founders of Auran will be present at the upcoming Trinity Forum in Doha, Qatar (5-6 February), where they will be presenting a study exploring recent changes in passenger spend behaviour. They will be pleased to connect with industry colleagues, partners, and stakeholders during the event, and look forward to continuing conversations.

At its core, Auran exists to help clients move confidently from commercial complexity to clear strategic action, identifying opportunities to enhance long-term asset value. {Main story continues below the following panel}

Transforming problems into actions: Auran spells out commercial strategy Following its launch today (28 January), London-based boutique advisory firm Auran (www.auranconsulting.com), has spelled out the core commercial strategy services it provides to airports, transport authorities, investors, and the design and masterplanning community. Auran focuses on commercial strategy for complex, passenger-led environments, supporting leadership teams at critical decision points across planning, investment, delivery and live operations. The firm’s work is deliberately practical and grounded in real-world operational, spatial and regulatory constraints. Auran’s services are organised across six core areas: Commercial Strategy: Evidence-led commercial strategies shaped by passenger behaviour, market context and real-world performance. Revenue Forecasting: Practical forecasting that reflects operational constraints, phasing and commercial reality. Space Planning: Category sizing, adjacencies, passenger flows and back-of-house logic that work in live airport environments. Commercial Due Diligence: Commercial validation, risk identification and uplift assessment for investors and operators. Masterplanning Advisory: Integrating commercial logic into terminal, concourse and airport-city masterplans. Strategic Customer Insight: Translating passenger research into clear commercial actions and leadership decisions. Auran works closely with airport operators and transport authorities to integrate commercial thinking into capital programmes, terminal planning and operational decision-making. For investors, the firm provides commercially grounded insight to assess value, risk and upside. For architects, masterplanners and designers, Auran brings commercial logic and operational realism to design competitions, concept development and delivery. Auran operates globally and closely works with senior leadership throughout each engagement. At its core, Auran exists to help organisations move from commercial complexity to clear strategic decisions and actions that enhance asset value.

Transforming problems into actions: On the record with Auran

The Moodie Davitt Report: Auran talks a lot about turning problems into actions. What does that mean in practice?

Auran: Airports today are not short of data or ideas. The challenge we see repeatedly is that strategies often aren’t clear, actionable or easy to implement. Our focus is on helping leadership teams make decisions they can actually execute – quickly, realistically and with a clear line of sight to commercial impact.

Where do commercial strategies most often fall down in airport environments?

From our experience working as operators, and having visibility across hundreds of airports globally, we see this pattern repeatedly: strategies can look good and sound good but ultimately aren’t practical to implement. Too often, recommendations don’t fully account for operational constraints, spatial realities, governance or delivery timelines.

We start by understanding those realities first, rather than treating them as issues to resolve later. Our knowledge and experience of the ecosystem also allows us to balance and take account of the wide variety of objectives that often exist between different stakeholders.

Is there a ‘right time’ to be doing commercial strategy on major airport and masterplanning projects?

Timing is critical, and it’s something we see go wrong surprisingly often. On large masterplanning or terminal projects, commercial strategy is frequently developed in parallel with design teams, or after critical masterplan decisions and terminal layouts have become ‘fixed’.

While that can feel efficient, it can also create complications later if the right amount, type, or location of commercial space hasn’t been clearly defined upfront.

The common thread is realism. For airport operators and transport authorities, we help integrate commercial thinking into capital programmes and operational decisions. For investors, the focus is on understanding value, risk and upside in a commercially grounded way.

From our experience, the most successful projects are those where clients set clear commercial parameters early – before design RFPs are issued. That clarity supports faster decision-making, reduces rework and helps ensure the right design and delivery teams are brought in from the outset.

This early-stage thinking is a key area where Auran supports airports, helping them define robust commercial frameworks that design, procurement and delivery can then build on and implement with confidence.

What types of decisions do clients typically bring to Auran?

It varies, but it’s usually around critical decision points: how much space to allocate to different commercial categories, how to forecast revenue realistically, how to structure or validate a commercial plan for a new terminal or redevelopment, or how to assess risk and upside ahead of an investment or major programme.

These are decisions where clarity early on makes a significant difference.

How does that translate into the work you actually do with clients?

In practical terms, that means working across commercial strategy, revenue forecasting, space planning, and due diligence – often in combination rather than isolation.

We’re frequently working alongside design teams on masterplans or layouts, or with investors and operators testing assumptions and identifying where value can genuinely be unlocked.

How do you work with different stakeholders, such as operators, investors and designers?

The common thread is realism. For airport operators and transport authorities, we help integrate commercial thinking into capital programmes and operational decisions. For investors, the focus is on understanding value, risk and upside in a commercially grounded way.

For architects and masterplanners, we bring commercial logic and operational insight into design development so concepts work not just aesthetically, but commercially and operationally too.

What ultimately differentiates Auran’s approach?

We spend a lot of time filtering rather than adding. Our role is to reduce complexity, focus on what really matters and convert analysis into clear actions that leadership teams can stand behind. If a recommendation can’t be implemented in a live airport environment, we don’t believe it’s a credible strategy.

Profiling the Auran founders Auran’s founding team – Mark Entwistle, Alex Avery and Kim Gray – bring together senior in-house airport leadership experience and international commercial advisory expertise across geographies and skillsets. With more than 60 years of combined industry experience, their backgrounds combine hands-on responsibility for commercial performance within live airport operations with global advisory experience across strategy, planning and investment support. Mark Entwistle brings deep in-house operational leadership experience from senior airport commercial roles, with a particular focus on governance, operating models, leasing structures, and delivery within complex and constrained environments. Following 15 years as a consultant specialising in travel retail commercial environments, he moved to Bali to be at the forefront of the commercial strategy, planning and leasing of both new international and domestic terminals, before becoming SVP Commercial for the Navi Mumbai International Greenfield Airport Project. His work focused on creating commercial strategies, layouts and tenant mix targeted to the massively growing number of Indian air travellers. Alex Avery contributes a global consulting and cross-sector perspective, having previously led an international commercial advisory business. His experience spans commercial trends and benchmarking, performance analysis and strategic advisory across multiple geographies and asset types, drawing on insight from both aviation and adjacent retail, food & beverage and real-estate sectors. He has led commercial strategy engagements for major airport assets across the UK, Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia. Kim Gray brings extensive experience in airport commercial strategy, leasing, category planning and space optimisation, with senior roles spanning client-side leadership and global consultancy. He led commercial strategy for the Heathrow expansion programme and served as Senior Vice President working across major US airports, including LAX, JFK, Chicago, Miami and Orlando, alongside broad international consultancy experience across Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and the USA. His work has focused on translating commercial ambition into layouts, strategies and performance improvements that operate effectively in live airport environments Across their combined experience, the founding team has delivered advisory work spanning commercial strategy, revenue forecasting, space planning, commercial due diligence, masterplanning advisory and strategic customer insight. Auran says this breadth underpins an ability to support leadership teams with clear, credible advice across the full lifecycle of complex  commercial assets. “The founding team’s global experience spans Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa, across hub, gateway, and regional airports, providing the platform for the Auran team to deliver clear strategic thinking for complex commercial assets,” the company said. ✈