Airport Experience® News - Conference Issue 2024

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Retail, Experiences Top Of Mind As Scott Socha Rejoins Delaware North’s Travel Division

BY CAROL WARD

ditor’s Note: Late last year, Delaware North announced a leadership change for its Travel division, which manages food and retail services at 22 airports across the United States. Scott Socha, a company veteran who previously led the Travel division from 2019 to 2021, has rejoined the division. He replaced Bob Wilson, who left Delaware North at the end of January. Socha, a group president since 2017 who also oversees the Parks & Resorts business and company operations in Australia, led the Travel division through the pandemic. Now back on the travel side of Delaware North’s operations, Socha is taking the helm at a time of robust passenger traffic and opportunities for growth. AXN’s Carol Ward recently spoke with Socha about how he sees the Travel division evolving. E

WARD: As you take the lead role for travel again, what’s your vision for the division? SOCHA: I was involved in the [travel] business during the pandemic - in the thick of it when business was non-existent across the board - and I’m excited to be back. We have obviously reemerged and continue to rebound in the industry. We have a great team in place that is super focused on taking care of the guests and has done an amazing job with some new business and new business extensions for us. I started with the company almost 25 years ago, and started in the airport division back in 1999. The company itself has been in the airport business since 1940. We’re a steady hand. We have a great relationship from a stability standpoint with our clients, which is really helpful. We’re going to get a little bit more focused on defining what is our role in the marketplace. You have small airports, medium, large - which airports do we want to be involved in? What markets specifically [offer] a service style and concepts that we want to be involved in? We’re going to be a bit more focused than perhaps we’ve been in the past. At the same time, continuing to invest in our core business, our existing book of business, is really important to us.

WARD: Can you share which areas of business you want to be in, either styles or regions, or specific types of airports? SOCHA: I am not going to say by size - I think that’s what we’re going to continue to refine as we go along. The leisure market has really driven the rebound in the airport business. It’s driven the rebound in the lodging business as well, which has forced us, on the lodging side, to rethink our business. We’ll do the same from an airport standpoint. WARD: When you were last directly involved in the travel business, we were in a pandemic, so the challenges were monumental. Now that we’ve moved on from the pandemic, what key challenges are you facing in the travel business? SOCHA: Staffing - it’s always the answer and continues to be a challenge. I think the biggest thing, though, is in the technology sector. Going into the pandemic, there certainly was a push for an adoption of technology. I’m not sure that the consumer wanted that technology change, but coming out of the pandemic, I think both business and the consumer are looking for that technology. But just introducing technology doesn’t solve the problem necessarily. You need to think about the operational side, and how you separate

Above: 25-year Delaware North veteran Scott Socha now leads the company’s Travel division. Socha, a group president since 2017 who also oversees the Parks & Resorts business and company operations in Australia, previously led the Travel division from 2019 to 2021..

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AX NEWS MARCH 2024