Airport Experience® News - Conference Issue 2024

ONE-ON-ONE

Fraport USA CEO Sabine Trenk Shares Views On Evolution Of Concessions Programs

BY CAROL WARD

ditor’s Note: Fraport USA , a developer of airport retail, food and beverage concession programs, is in the spotlight these days as the high-profile program at Nashville International Airport (BNA) comes to fruition. In October 2023, company was tapped to manage concessions at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) and Dulles International Airport (IAD). Also last year, Fraport USA began its concessions development efforts for JetBlue’s Terminal 5 at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). There’s been upheaval for the company in the U.S. market as well. Since 2004, Fraport USA has held the concessions management contract at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI). The contract was up for renewal and the bidding process began in mid-2022, but was halted after allegations that the bidding had been tainted and that requirements for winning appeared to have been changed to favor one of Fraport USA’s competitors. A contract rebid for the BWI contract was underway at press time. Separately, Fraport USA last year was ousted from Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT), where it had served as developer of the concessions program since 1992, after a contentious court battle. New leadership is in place at Fraport USA, a subsidiary of Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide , as the company embarks on developing concessions for its newly added airports, manages its current contracts and looks for new opportunities. Sabine Trenk joined Fraport USA as CEO in June. She most recently served as chief operating and commercial offering for Fraport Brasil. She also held executive positions at Xi’an Xianyang International Airport (XIY) in China and at Jorge Chavez International Airport (LIM)in Lima, Peru. Recently, Trenk spoke with AXN’s Carol Ward about her vision and goals for Fraport USA . E

Above: Sabine Trenk, CEO, Fraport USA

WARD: You’ve been in your role as CEO of Fraport USA for about eight months. Can you share your broad-based goals for the company and how you’re progressing so far? TRENK: At Fraport USA we are responsible for the management of the concession programs at Cleveland, Newark Terminal B, JFK Terminal 5, Nashville, Baltimore and shortly after assuming my new role here at Fraport USA, we were awarded the concession of the prestigious programs at the Washington DC airports. Naturally our interest is to grow our portfolio, but at the same time we as a team are working on the

evolution of our concession programs. We are looking into the changing trends in a very competitive and dynamic market here in the U.S. One aspect we are particularly interested in is using emerging technologies to help us identify and prioritize consumer preferences. We are looking at the use and the implementation of digital tools; for example, sales tracking, consumer engagement, heat maps, to better understand terminal flows. We want to get more into analytics, we want to leverage the analytics to gain more insight into the customer behavior developing

86

AX NEWS MARCH 2024