Airport Experience® News - 20 Years of the AX Conference

“That put a real twist on things because they were trying to cram so much into the tiny little post-security spaces,” Synkoski says. “Luckily a lot of those airports were up for renovation anyway, so old concourses were knocked down or expanded or both, so they were able to make room for concession space post-security. But for that first five to 10 years after 9/11, post-security concession space was very, very hard to find.” Real Estate Shifts It was then that airports began looking at their terminal footprints in new ways, and focusing on the revenue generation that could stem from placing concessions in key locations. “No one was talking about non-aeronautical revenues” in the 1990s, and the subject was only beginning to bubble up in the early 2000s, says Les Cappetta, principal at Airport Alliances LLC . “[Non-aeronautical revenues] weren’t that big a deal in the budgets and nobody really got involved,” he says. “Concessions were controlled by two to four dominant players, and most of the models were master concessionaire or prime. There were some developers involved in the early nineties and some direct leases, but for the most part, it was the major players.” The lack of importance placed on concessions by airports meant that food and beverage and retail offerings were “relegated to remote, undersized. ill-configured spaces,” Cappetta says. That began to change in the early- to mid-2000s, when airports began tapping into the revenue opportunities and national brands began making headway in airports.

“I think we got very ambitious in those early days in the 2000s of thinking that American consumers were going to be willing to treat our airports like a mall,” says Tonja Pastorelle, president, Pastorelle Marketing Group . “I think unfortunately over time that has not proven to be the case from a retail perspective.” She notes that Europeans and others across the world are accustomed to shopping in airports, but North Americans are less so. Part of the problem, Pastorelle says, is that U.S. airports tried to capture the enthusiasm for luxury brand shopping seen elsewhere, but without designing a shopping core. “For example, if we wanted to add specialty retail but we didn’t have the space to create an entire retail environment, in many cases we just plopped them down every few gates here and there without creating…a concentration of stores,” Pastorelle says, adding that those same global airports typically have policies that prohibit passengers from going to their gate until the flight is called, providing more impetus to shop. The F&B Offering As airports and concessionaires began moving concessions post-security as much as possible and focusing on ways to maximize revenues, national brands became a focal point for many. Cappetta remembers days when national brands viewed airports as a risky proposition, but by the time the first Airport Experience Conference happened 20 years ago, brands were front and center in most airport concessions programs. “Back in 2004 or 2005, you still had programs that were focusing a lot on

Above: Customer-facing technologies such as self-checkout (Delaware North’s The Market On Las Olas pictured) have been adopted by a range of concessionaires, with more innovations to come.

Above: Les Cappetta, principal at Airport Alliances LLC, remembers days when national brands viewed airports as a risky proposition, but by the time the first Airport Experience Conference happened 20 years ago, brands were front and center in most airport concessions programs.

Above: Specialty retail has struggled in part due to the lack of a shopping core in most airports, consultant Tonja Pastorelle says.

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AX NEWS JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024