Andrija Brstina

Andrija Brstina is the Head of Process Excellence at Abu Dhabi Airports, a position he has held since July 2024. In this capacity, Andrija leads major company process improvement initiatives, contributes to defining corporate strategy, the development of the company's innovation portfolio and project portfolio management. His work focuses on driving operational excellence and transformation across the organization to enhance efficiency and performance.

With over 20 years of experience in aviation and airport operations, Andrija brings extensive expertise in ORAT (Operational Readiness, Activation and Transition), transformation management, and large-scale project delivery. Prior to his current role, Andrija served as ORAT Lead for Zayed International Airport with Parsons from April 2022. He was one of the pivotal Leads responsible for Terminal A's successful opening in November 2023, where he served as the Operations Planning and Trials Lead. A year later, in November 2024, he led the complete ORAT program for US CBP operations within Terminal A. During this period, he also played a key role in establishing the Process Excellence Department, developed and implemented strategies for airport operations including passenger flow management and service quality enhancement, and led the comprehensive redesign of complex operational processes.

Earlier in his career, Andrija held various leadership positions with Etihad Airways and Etihad Airport Services, including Manager of Cargo Projects & Operations Planning and Manager of Operations Planning, where he managed transformation initiatives, business resilience planning, and large-scale operational projects including COVID-19 pandemic response and major event handling. His experience also includes roles as Duty Operations Manager at Abu Dhabi Hub, where he managed terminal operations and led performance improvement initiatives across the Etihad network.

Andrija holds a COO Program certificate from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), where he completed specialized courses in AI Products & Services and Virtual/Augmented Reality, and a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Belgrade. He has been a speaker at industry conferences, including Air Convention - Digital Week 2.0, where he presented on restoring confidence in air travel post-pandemic.