Airport Experience® News - Conference 2023

DIREC TOR’ S CHA IR

Left: Concessions at Albuquerque International Sunport are being expanded as part of an overall airport upgrade. RFPs for concessions will be released this year. Below: Albuquerque International Sunport’s design features brick flooring and Southwest and Native American influences to evoke a sense of place.

WARD: Who are your concessions providers now, and will they stay the same? MCCURL E Y: For F&B it ’s Fresquez Concessions , a local company. For retail we have Hudson , Stellar Partners and El Mercado . Those contracts will continue until July of 2024, then we have the opportunity to extend on a month to-month basis as we do this terminal renovation. We have two RFPs with for concessions packages that’ll be going out soon. Our RFP for food and beverage will go out in mid-March of this year, followed by retail probably around mid-July. As we move toward the RFP, one of the big components is the balance between the national products and local flavor. When the public comes here to New Mexico, they want to taste the food [that is local or regional]. And so, we’re balancing that in the airport to have the local flavors, but also offering some of the national brands. When somebody comes to this airport we want to offer a sense of place. We are focused on providing that – keeping the heritage furniture, the aesthetics of the airport, to know that when you come here, you’re in New Mexico. We have that Southwest culture, the Native American influence. In addition to the concessions, were upgrading our restrooms and looking at touchless and other options. We’re looking

at [services for] the hearing impaired. We’re also upgrading our electrical power connections, adding about 50% more [charging ports] in the seating areas. WARD: Are there any other developments you’d like to share? MCCURLEY: We have a total renovation of all our boarding bridges, which is about a $20 million project. Also, as part of the push for international service we’re going to be looking at developing a two-gate facility here at the airport. We’ll

be looking to kick off the schematic and design, probably in May, June or July of 24. Our focus is on getting those new destinations in here. We’ll continue to work with airlines and to champion why Albuquerque is the place to be, both as a vacation destination but also for business. The big [player in the market] is Netflix. They do a lot of production, they’re building more studios – they’re becoming one of the giants here. We will look to partner up with them to enhance what we can offer.

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