Airport Experience® News - Customer Service Issue 2024

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2024 / V22 N258

PERSONALIZING THE

JOURNEY

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Exceeding

Expectations

Impeccable guest service

Speed and Convenience: Self-checkouts

Unique Innovation: AI-powered nail robots

Our award-winning customer service strikes the right balance of high tech and high touch.

16 Concessions With A Cause Areas USA started working with Homeboy Industries at LAX more than a decade ago. Now, other partnerships between concessionaires and non-profits are popping up, creating jobs and providing revenue for various causes. 22 The Personal Touch It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what an individual will want on their journey from curb to gate, but new technologies allow airports and concessionaires to get closer to that goal. Identifying passenger preferences, tailoring custom product recommendations and soliciting feedback are all now within reach. 27 Just Rewards Consumers can get rewards for many transactions they make on a day-to-day basis. Increasingly, rewards can be gained at airports as well. 30 Coffee Evolution Most travelers embrace a well-appointed coffee shop with an appetizing menu, but sometimes speed is a top priority. Autonomous coffee offerings are increasingly filling demand for quick, 24-7 access. 36 Net-Zero Efforts Airports throughout North America are on a journey to become carbon-neutral. At the same time, many are under construction or renovation. Building in eco-friendly construction practices is yielding results.

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4 Letter From The Editor 6 Data Check

42 Project Spotlight Vantage Group-led JFK Millennium Partners is undertaking the new Terminal 6 at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The new, state-of-the-art terminal will feature the lots of natural light, the latest in biometrics and other technologies and a strong focus on local concessions and local operators. 45 Industry Innovators Miami International Airport issued a challenged to find the best accessability innovations. Three companies were successful and are now testing their products. 47 Advertising Index 48 Before You Take Off Plaza Premium Group’s “cocktail globetrotting” program allows guests to experience the world’s best cocktails while in the lounge at Hong Kong International Airport.

A new report from SITA shows just how much technology travelers are willing to embrace throughout their journeys. 8 Latest Buzz The terminal at Syracuse International Airport is being expanded to allow for burgeoning passenger growth. The airport’s plans coincided with New York’s upstate airports initiative, which is funding a portion of the expansion. 12 Director’s Chair

In his first airport director role, Mookie Patel, now director of aviation at San

Jose Mineta International Airport, is faced with significant challenges as San Jose’s economy evolves.

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AX NEWS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2024

Andrew Tellijohn Senior Reporter Sally Kral Contributing Writer Sarah Beling Contributing Writer

TEAM

Barbara McCarter Portfolio Manager Chad Wimmer Senior Editorial Art Director Rae Lynn Cooper Production Manager Amanda Gochee Vice President, Marketing Strategy Katy Welch Senior Marketing Manager Tristan Lueck Marketing Coordinator Emma Vail Marketing Coordinator AXN ADVISORY GROUP Kim Becker, San Diego International Airport Derryl Benton, Avolta Zenola Campbell, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Bryant Francis, Cleveland Hopkins International Airport Mark Gale, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport Eric Johnson, Nashville International Airport Roddy McOwan, WH Smith North America Pat Murray, SSP America Gregg Paradies, Paradies Lagardère Kevin Westlye, High Flying Foods

Desiree Hanson Chief Commercial Officer Melissa Montes Vice President/Publisher Carol Ward

Editor-in-Chief Nicole Watson Business Development Manager Sally Kral Contributing Writer Sarah Beling Contributing Writer Barbara McCarter Senior Portfolio Manager Chad Wimmer Senior Editorial Art Director Rae Lynn Cooper Production Manager Amanda Gochee Vice President, Marketing Strategy Katy Welch Senior Marketing Manager Amanda Litwack Senior Digital Marketing Coordinator Emma Vail Marketing Coordinator

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EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE WHEREVER YOUR JOURNEY TAKES YOU

Across North America, we’re making the journey as enjoyable as the destination by being the Traveler’s Best Friend. We are always ready to assist, whether travelers need last-minute essentials, a quick bite, a memento, or the perfect gift.

TO BE A PART OF THE TRAVEL EXPERIENCE REVOLUTION, CONTACT BRIAN QUINN BQUINN HUDSONGROUP.COM

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2024

Dear Readers,

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2024 / V22 N258

Virtually every airport director and every airport concessions executive I speak with mentions a focus on customer service and the traveler experience. Customer service has always been a centerpiece, but efforts have ratcheted up throughout the industry to focus on an optimal traveler journey from curb to gate. This issue of Airport Experience News Magazine spotlights a few of those efforts, starting with the personalization of the passenger journey. Technology is allowing airports and concessionaires to tailor offerings and solutions for every traveler on an individualized basis. Another article in this issue highlights airport concessions that have ties to charitable concerns and whose revenues help support those causes. These and other features in this issue showcase some of the many actions airports and concessionaires are taking to enhance the traveler journey. Looking ahead, our year-end issue will focus on leadership, and we have several features in the works including our annual Director of the Year coverage. We’re also focusing on mentors and mentees with a project highlighting some of the most dynamic relationships in the industry. If you are being mentored, or if you are mentoring an industry up-and-comer, please reach out to me at carol@airportxnews.com for potential inclusion in our coverage. Finally, awards nominations are underway! Nominate your industry favorites through our nominations portal found at https://www.airportxnews. com/axc-awards/. Nominations close November 8.

PERSONALIZING THE

JOURNEY

CAUSE-FOCUSED CONCESSIONS THRIVE AIRPORT LOYALTY PROGRAMS BRING BENEFITS COFFEE GOES HIGH TECH

Thanks!

Carol Ward Editor-in-Chief

Airport Experience News carol@airportxnews.com

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AX NEWS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2024

• National Brand Awareness • Proven Business Results • Flexible Store Solutions • Dedicated Support Teams • Full Menu for Every Daypart • Robust Specialty, Cold Brew & Drip Coffee Program T a k e o f f W I t H

Tina Welch l Sr. Director, Business Development l 502.235.4615 l tina.welch@bagelbrands.com

DATA CHECK

SMOOTH JOURNEYS Report Shows Impact Of Tech Amidst Air Travel Demand Surge

BY CAROL WARD

Percent Of Passengers Using Technology At Each Journey Stage

Combined

Web

Mobile

Kiosks

e-Tag

e-Gates

90%

72%

18%

Booking

41%

27%

5%

9%

Bag tag

23%

Bag drop

35%

20%

15%

Identity control

58%

Dwell time

19%

Boarding

53%

On board

14%

3%

22%

5%

Border control

26%

Bag collection

Source: SITA 2024 Passenger IT Insights Report

igital identities will play a massive role in the travel experience of the future, and

in advance to speed up the journey,” SITA said. “This signals the hugely important role digital identities will play in the travel experience of the future.” Technology usage remains high across various touchpoints of the travel journey, with 90% of passengers utilizing technology for booking and relying heavily on mobile devices for booking, dwell- time, and on-board activities, the report shows. Moreover, 64% of passengers said that the most important factor they’d like to see improved in the travel process is shorter waiting times at the airport. “These trends underscore the importance of moving towards greater usage of digital travel credentials (DTCs),” SITA CEO David Lavoral wrote in the report’s executive summary.

D

a growing number of travelers express willingness to share, according to the SITA 2024 Passenger IT Insights report. Travelers see technology as a key to ensuring a smooth and efficient passenger journey, and they’re “eagerly embracing” innovations like mobile-enabled digital travel, the report said, noting high adoption across key stages like booking, dwell time, and baggage collection. “Taking this a step further, three of four passengers surveyed reported being comfortable with having their passport stored on their phone through a secure Digital Travel Credential and sharing this

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DATA CHECK

“Already, three in four passengers are comfortable storing their passport on their phone and sharing digital identity and biometrics in advance of travel,” he wrote. “However, the adoption of biometrics faces challenges due to privacy concerns, highlighting the need for education and reassurance about the safety and benefits of biometric technology.” Digital Travel Credentials Air travel has soared since 2023, surpassing industry expectations, with forecasts suggesting further growth in 2024. Looking ahead, air travel demand is expected to double to 8 billion passengers by 2040. Such growth will require airports to adapt and advance their digital capabilities to cope with increasing capacity and flow demands without any additional space. “Utilization of digital travel technology is not something that is just nice to have – it is an inevitable outcome of the demands placed on the current air travel industry infrastructure,” the SITA report said. By moving away from reliance on physical documents, airports and airlines can achieve faster passenger processing and improved passenger experiences, SITA said. In addition, digital travel can optimize use of resources and increase capacity and scalability and enable a more rapid response to changes in operational processes. Finally, digital adoption can create new revenue streams for travel players, the report found. Digital travel credentials allow passengers to share documentation with governments before traveling, which helps governments manage who enters and leaves the country. DTCs are digital representations of a person’s identity, such as a passport, stored in a mobile wallet. Passengers express varying levels of comfort in the technology, depending on the scenario. According to the SITA survey, about three-quarters of respondents were “very comfortable” or “somewhat comfortable” with having a digital passport stored on their phone, and with providing the digital credential and biometrics in advance of travel. Those levels of comfort held above 70% when asked about providing the data to airlines, airports and border control. The SITA survey showed that most travelers would be open to having a private company issue to the DTC, rather than insisting on a government-run initiative. While only a quarter would trust a private company as much as the government, another 42% say they would still be open

Comfort With Digital Travel Credential (DTC) In Different Scenarios

Very comfortable

Somewhat comfortable Very uncomfortable

Neither comfortable nor uncomfortable

Somewhat uncomfortable

Don’t know

Having a digital passport on your phone (i.e. a Digital Travel Credential [DTC] stored in a secure digital wallet)

44%

31%

10% 7% 4%

1%

Providing your digital identity and biometrics in advance of travel to make the journey more ef cient (i.e. uploading a photo and your credentials to a digital wallet on a secure app before you travel, so they can be checked in advance)

39%

34%

11% 8% 4%

1%

Source: SITA 2024 Passenger IT Insights Report

Comfort Providing Digital Travel Credential (DTC) To Different Operators

Very comfortable

Somewhat comfortable Very uncomfortable

Neither comfortable nor uncomfortable

Somewhat uncomfortable

Don’t know

Border control

34%

37%

15%

8%

3% 3%

The airport

35%

39%

14%

7%

3% 3%

Your airline

38%

39%

12%

7%

3% 3%

Only one in 10 passengers report feeling uncomfortable with any of the travel operators, and only 5% of passengers are uncomfortable across all three operators.

Three in four (76%) say they would be comfortable with sharing their DTC with an airline, followed by an airport (74%) and border control (71%).

Source: SITA 2024 Passenger IT Insights Report

to such companies being the issuers. As a whole, just under three quarters of travelers (70%) would trust – or be open to trusting – a private entity to issue a DTC, with only one in five (21%) saying they would not trust a private company. Support towards private entities issuing a DTC is particularly pronounced among male passengers, younger passengers and those traveling for business purposes. Biometric Moves Alongside digital travel credentials, one of the key areas of technology which could help to resolve these issues would

be the wider use of biometrics across the travel experience, the report said, noting that issues like long wait times could be addressed through the technology. SITA’s research showed in the last year there has been a decrease in how comfortable passengers are with the use of biometrics as identification – likely due to rising public reservations around privacy – with the average score across various touchpoints decreasing from 7.4 to 6.7 (out of 10). The report noted the hesitancy around biometrics “is an an issue that the aviation sector will have to take note of, given the growing appetite for rolling out biometric initiatives among airports and airlines.”

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LATEST BUZZ

SYR’S BIG BOOST With Record Passenger Numbers, Syracuse Hancock International Is Prepping For Future Growth

BY SARAH BELING

raffic at Syracuse Hancock International Airport (SYR) has hit record highs, and after several years of significant increases, officials decided that it was time to expand. “In 2019, we started to kick off a new master plan for the airport, at which time we recognized that we were short in a lot of areas, including terminal space, so we really focused on gates, concessions, things like that, “ says Jason Terreri, executive director of the Syracuse Regional Airport Authority . As SYR officials put together a plan to overhaul the central New York airport’s terminal spaces, a simultaneous opportunity appeared. In 2022, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul’s office awarded T

$230 million to nine upstate airports for facility improvement – including $20 million allocated to SYR for updates to the airport’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Federal Inspection Station (FIS) as well as renovation to its north concourse, Terminal B. Planning upgrades at SYR “just happened to align with the New York State upstate airport initiative,” says Terreri. “We applied for the grant for the two projects that we knew were coming up, and we were successful in getting about $20 million” to begin work on its renovations, adds Terreri. The timing couldn’t have been better as the airport reached approximately 2.8 million passengers in 2023, an “all-time record,” for traffic, says Terreri. “We’ve been breaking

Above: Syracuse Hancock International Airport has had record passenger numbers, growth that prompted the airport to take on a terminal expansion project.

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LATEST BUZZ

Above, Right: In addition to a new FIS station and CBP facility, the upgrades at SYR include expanded gate hold seating areas and new jet bridges for carriers.

records for the last several years,” he adds, noting that “last year represented about a 13% increase over the previous year, which was also a record-breaking year.” The team at SYR broke ground on the project in spring 2024, with all updates slated to be complete by January 2025. In addition to the new FIS station and CBP facility, other upgrades at SYR – designed by Corgan architecture firm and built by VRH Construction – include expanded gate hold seating areas and new jet bridges for carriers Delta Air Lines and United Airlines . SYR will also get a sustainability upgrade with the installation of dynamic window glass to manage airport temperatures and reduce utility costs.

Escape Lounge operator and ACDBE company Gideon Toal Management Services (GTMS) . The choice to install two well-known national brands was based on customer research, says Gideon Toal’s president Dr. Alvin Brown. “Just like in our lounges, we look at the segment we work with,” says Brown. “We worked very closely with Jason [Mehl, chief commercial

National Brand Offerings As part of its Terminal Expansion Project, the airport will also launch two new concessions concepts – a Qdoba quick serve restaurant, serving the brand’s well-known Mexican fare, and Einstein Bros. Bagels serving breakfast, sandwiches and snacks. Both ventures will be operated by established SYR

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AX NEWS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2024

LATEST BUZZ

officer at SYR] and [director of business development] Linda [Ryan] to come up with what concept they were looking for. Our approach is really working hand in-hand [with airports], especially in medium-sized hubs versus large hubs,” explains Brown. “With the medium-sized hubs, the operator gets more opportunity to sit down and curate what we’re going to be doing.” In the case of Qdoba – which will be located next to GTMS’s lounge – “the question that we really examined closely [was], ‘Is there going to be any cannibalization? Is it going to cut into the visits to the lounge?’” says Brown. “There’s always been this question, since common-use lounges came on the scene. But what we found is that no [there won’t be cannibalization], most of the passengers that use a lounge, they’re looking specifically for a lounge,” says Brown. “And then there’s this other segment that are going to their gate, [and want to know] ‘Where can I get something really quick to take to my gate?’” Having visited other high-performing Qdoba locations as a passenger, Brown decided that the brand would make the perfect fit for on-the-go SYR passengers. “What we found is that there’s a big desire for Mexican eats in that region,” he adds. The team at Gideon Toal chose Einstein Bros. Bagels “because of the name recognition,” says Brown, noting that the concept will have a prime location for time-restricted passengers. “It’s about handling, managing and delivering the passenger needs, “says Brown. “Syracuse is very cyclical in terms of the flow of passengers. In the morning there’s a big hit with a lot of passengers, so [breakfast] is what they wanted to be able to offer,” he adds. “We’re an O&D airport,” adds Mehl. “We don’t have a lot of dwell time, so sit-down restaurants don’t make as much sense. When you look at all of our peak periods in this airport, every table at the sit-down restaurants is taken and it takes a little bit longer to turn those tables, which is leaving a lot of experience on the table, if you will, from a passenger experience standpoint,” he says. In adding Qdoba and Einstein Bros. Bagels, “We’re complementing those sit-down restaurants with a quick turn solution so people can grab their food – something that’s national,

Left, Below: Two new concessions will be added during the SYR expansion. National brands Einstein Bros. Bagels and Qdoba were chosen for their quick service and broad appeal.

something that’s well-known, [and] that complements a lot of our local flavor,” Mehl adds. And if the reaction to the airport’s new Qdoba and Einstein Bros. Bagels is anything like what GTMS has experienced with its lounge, “it’s going to be really successful,” says Brown. “At first the lounge was doing 75 a day; now it averages between 250-300 a day.” Brown believes that the stats prove Syracuse is on a strong growth trajectory that has “opened a lane” for ACDBEs like GTMS, he adds. Additional Improvements It’s a growth trajectory that SYR plans to maintain. “Where we thought we were going to be in 2030, we’re going to hit between next year and 2026, so we’ve had to accelerate our development program by about five years,” says Terreri. In addition to the current New York state funded project, the airport is also in the midst of planning a renovation of its South Concourse, a $6.7 million project

which will be PFC funded; a $9.7 million HVAC upgrade; has secured a $3 million grant to expand its checkpoint facilities and is seeking a $30 million DOT ATP grant to replace its center terminal roof. “There’s a lot going on in our region that’s driving a lot of our growth right now,” says Terreri, who adds that SYR plans to undertake approximately $5 billion of work over the next five years, in part to keep up with the region’s fast growing technology sector. “We have Micron Technologies building the largest chip manufacturing facility nine miles north of our airport, so there’s a lot happening right now that we have to get ready for,” says Terreri. But as the current project moves toward completion, Terreri looks forward to receiving customer feedback on SYR’s upgraded spaces. The ultimate goal, says Terreri, is “providing an opportunity for the airlines to expand [where] we’re able to accommodate it and still maintain that really high level of customer service.”

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DIRECTOR’S CHAIR

SJC’S NEW LEADERSHIP Mookie Patel Is Putting His Vision Into Play At The Challenging Bay Area Airport

BY CAROL WARD

ditor’s Note: San Jose Mineta International Airport (SJC) hasn’t had the post pandemic bounce-back that many of its airport peers have experienced. With direct competition coming from two other major California Bay Area airports, and with a business traveler base, SJC has struggled to recover from the pandemic. Add to that the outward migration that California, and the Bay Area in particular, is experiencing, and the result is that growth has been largely elusive. Mukesh (Mookie) Patel was selected as the new airport director for SJC in March 2024. Patel has been a key player on the properties and revenue side of airports, having held key roles at several airports including San Antonio International Airport (SAT), Denver International Airport (DEN) and, most recently, Austin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS). Now, in his first airport director role, Patel is taking on the challenge of overseeing SJC at a challenging and critical time. AXN’s Carol Ward spoke with Patel about his vision for the airport going forward. E

WARD: It’s been eight months or so since you were named director of SJC. Can you give me an overview of how it’s gone so far? PATEL: For 24 years, if you look back at the growth trend from 1999 to 2024, we’ve only seen about a .5% growth. Silicon Valley goes through dips and booms and busts, just like the tech economy does. With that, the culture here – especially among those that have been here more than five or 10 years – is resiliency. When you work with a team of folks that are very resilient and are dedicated to their profession, you want to bring humility and a personality to the table. I’ve known (former director) John Aiken for most of my career. Through my career on the airport side I know Kim Becker and before her, Bill Sherry (both former SJC directors). I know this airport – I know its ebbs and flows. Bringing my own personality to the table helped my leadership team gel closely with me. It’s foundational relationship building within the leadership level. I also made a strong effort with a personal e-mail to all 225 employees. They knew who I was and where I was coming from, they knew my family. That resulted in about 50 individual, one-on one e-mail conversations with employees.

Ward: Beyond building the relationship with the team, what has been your focus thus far? PATEL: I would say that my biggest accomplishment in my first six months here was growing the trust from my team. That was pillar number one. Pillar number two was understanding the governance of this airport. I can comfortably say I work for a very competent city leadership group here that trusts the enterprise. It’s a check and-go kind of mentality where I reach out to my leadership at City Hall, but [the expectation is] that I just do what I need to do, basically staying within the gutter guards at the bowling alley. You want your bowl to hit a strike every time, so I’m very cognizant of who I work for and how that relationship is built. I’m doing what I need to do for the best outcome for the airport. The last piece, which is the most uncontrollable pillar, is the economy of the Bay Area in general and the fact that I work in an airport that competes against two other commercial service airports within a 40-minute drive.

Above: Mukesh (Mookie) Patel, director of aviation, San José Mineta International Airport (SJC).

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DIRECTOR’S CHAIR

Above: Traditionally reliant mainly on business travel, SJC hasn’t fully recovered from the pandemic.

Left: With passenger traffic declining, executives at SJC have decided to postpone an expansion plan and instead focus on making sure existing facilities are in top shape.

WARD: How has SJC fared – in terms of passenger numbers – in the post-pandemic environment. PATEL: The economy is changing, and the travel landscape has fundamentally shifted since Covid. Business travelers are back, but they are taking fewer trips in the post pandemic world. We are working hard with our air service development team to better understand the current travel landscape and how we can meet travelers’ demands in this new environment. One example of the shift has been the rapid entry and growth of ULCCs into our airport. In early 2020, we had no domestic ULCC service. Volaris was our fastest-growing airline during the pandemic – the only one that actually added capacity during those tough years. Just this year, Frontier Airlines returned to SJC with five daily nonstops; Spirit Airlines added a twice-daily nonstop route to Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR), just one year after the airline began operations in San José. The new service has

brought Spirit’s total peak daily departures to 13, representing 150% growth since its inaugural SJC flight on June 7, 2023. ANA suspended its nonstop SJC-Tokyo flight since the pandemic, but Zipair – JAL’s low-cost subsidiary, was quick to fill the void; Zipair now carries more passengers between San José and Japan than ANA did. So, it’s lots of change, but we’re working hard to adapt to the new reality. WARD: Are you partnering with community organizations to shore up travel and ensure local companies use SJC? PATEL: We have a small marketing team, and they do a tremendous job of building relationships in our community. We partner with several local chambers of commerce, Team San José, who runs our city’s destination marketing organization, and multiple other organizations. We’re out in the community. Currently, we have a campaign around our 75th anniversary so we’ve got a lot of swag that has helped build strong affinity across our community.

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AX NEWS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2024

DIRECTOR’S CHAIR

WARD: Given the challenges with passenger numbers I assume you aren’t looking to expand. Do you have any capital projects underway? PATEL: During the last boom cycle, the airport added some temporary ground load gates. Now we have 36 gates at the airport, but we’re only turning about 144 flights a day. It’s very low utilization of our gate capacity. That’s resulted in a delay of a $2 billion-plus terminal expansion program. We’re now seeing traffic tracking at about 2 percent below last year. We’re taking our capital investment dollars reinvesting them into the facility to shore up the backbone of the airport. Rather than building more gate capacity, we’re [refurbishing] sewer lines, water lines, bathrooms, seating, carpeting…. We’re painting walls and investing in the facilities that we have. We’re watching the airline industry, and one of the challenges is too much capacity. Airlines grew too fast during Covid; now passenger travel has slowed down a little bit and we’ve got airlines that are teetering on restructuring or changing their business models. We want to be careful about what kind of investment we’re making in infrastructure.

WARD: Are you anticipating a further dip? Or perhaps a turn-around? PATEL: Leisure travel to the Bay Area hasn’t historically been to San Jose. For decades people came to San Jose mainly for the tech industry. Part of the recovery does require the city to work with agencies and organizations around the community to reinvent who we are as a city. Regarding business travel, I think it will take some time to rebound to pre- Covid numbers. Bay Area tech companies are also in Raleigh, Nashville, Austin. Other cities too. We don’t “own” it anymore, and we need to be comfortable sharing in that love for technology. WARD: You’ve spent most of your career on the revenue side of the business. Has it been a struggle to incorporate the operations side? PATEL: I surround myself with really solid people, and I’ve never been shy to say, “I don’t understand – can you teach me.” I’m also very comfortable trusting, but verifying, a team that’s been here for 20-plus years. Judy Ross (former assistant director of aviation at SJC) retired in late August. In November, Patti Singh, who is the assistant director of operations for Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport (FLL), will be

joining us as assistant director. Hiring somebody who has the skills that you don’t have is the best compliment you can give an organization. WARD: Turning to concessions, what’s the latest on SJC’s program? PATEL: We have a very mature retail program that is on the street [for bids]. Currently, Hudson manages the entire retail program under two separate contracts. Rebekah Bray (principal property manager, finance and administration) is a star. She has spent a number of years post-Covid understanding the retail side of the business, understanding how recovery has happened and [assessing] how the industry can participate in a program like ours, with a very high cost of construction and a very high labor rate market. Add in all the nuances that every airport wants, which is local, local, local, and which is a profit, profit, profit. She structured the deal so that we could get the highest number of proposers interested in our RFP. And we’ve received interest from a majority of the really strong retail providers in our industry. I am very excited for January when we’re able to unveil who our next retail partners will be. On the food and beverage side we’re working with our partners, SSP America and HMSHost . That RFP was bid out pre-Covid so we’ve had a little bit of a challenge getting some of the stores operational. We’re hoping that 2025 is when a majority of our food and beverage program will be open. I think our food and beverage program, once it’s fully developed and open, will be amazing.

Left: SSP America operates food and beverage concessions at SJC. The pandemic prompted a slowdown in new openings but Patel says the goal is to have all contracted spaces operational by next year.

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CONCESSIONS

WITH A CAUSE Furthering The Sense Of Place, Some Concessions Have Advocacy Role For the past several years, most North American airports have sought to bring a “sense of place” to their concessions programs. But increasingly, showcasing the local community also means giving back, with individual concepts that incorporate local community outreach and advocacy. For over a decade, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) has partnered with concessionaire Areas USA and Los Angeles not-for-profit Homeboy Industries to operate the Homeboy Cafe. A coffee shop, bakery and all-day eatery serving chef-inspired fare provided by Homeboy Industries, Homeboy Cafe has been open since 2013 in Terminal 4 before moving to its current home in Terminal 3 in partnership with Unibail Rodamco Westfield (URW). BY SARAH BELING

Above: Homeboy Cafe at Los Angeles International Airport has ties to Homeboy Industries, which offers advocacy, career training and employment to previously incarcerated and formerly gang-involved individuals. Operator Areas USA contributes a percentage of its revenue to the non-profit organization.

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Founded by Catholic pastor Greg Boyle in 1988, Homeboy Industries offers advocacy, career training and employment to previously incarcerated and formerly gang involved individuals. Maral Matossian, vice president of LAX for URW Airports, says that in choosing to partner with Homeboy, they were “inspired by LAWA’s commitment to enhancing the LAX guest experience with local, socially responsible businesses that reflect the diversity and spirit of Los Angeles.” “Homeboy Industries, with its long standing reputation for transforming lives through job training and social enterprise, was a natural fit, able to offer guests a unique, locally inspired culinary experience while supporting a powerful social mission,” Matossian adds. By contributing a percentage of its profits to Homeboy, Areas USA has sent more than $1.5M to the not-for-profit in their decade long partnership, says Richard Schneider,

chief development officer. While many of Homeboy Industries’ clients are barred from airport employment due to FAA regulations prohibiting employees with felony convictions, the store’s brand training emphasizes the need to represent Homeboy’s mission, says Schneider. “Concept managers who act as our ‘brand ambassadors’ visit the downtown L.A. Homeboy Industry complex and participate in Father Boyle’s inspiring morning message and share a fellowship breakfast at Homegirl Café,” Schneider says. “Our team ensures each new hire for our Homeboy Café understands the impact Homeboy Industries makes in the community and beyond, and how they are changing people’s lives every day.” “We often say ‘Homeboy Industries belongs to Los Angeles, and Los Angeles belongs to Homeboy Industries,’” adds Homeboy Industries CEO Thomas Vozzo. “Our partnership with Areas showcasing Homeboy

Industries provides LAX with an important piece of the Los Angeles community, and a lens into this 36-year-old non-profit organization that is now a central part of the city’s culture and identity. This identity is anchored by spirit and the philosophy that, ‘there is no us and them, only us,’” he adds. “The hope is that everyone who visits the Homeboy Café at LAX is able to take away a piece of this culture and take it with them, wherever they may travel or call home.” Inspired To Act Inspired by the Homeboy Café concept, other community-forward concessions have since taken wing. When Ken Buchanan, executive vice president of revenue management at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) discussed the idea of launching a socially-driven concept with concessionaire Gideon Toal Management Services (GTMS), he said

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he’d like to create something akin to the Homeboy Cafe, according to Dr. Alvin Brown, president of GTMS. The idea excited Brown. “I have a PhD in Urban Affairs and Public Administration, so I’m really focused on that kind of research,” adds Brown. He told Buchanan he was interested in creating “a social entrepreneurship model” where they could not just bring awareness to one of the area’s most-pressing issues – homelessness – but provide an active solution through their concept. Brown turned to fellow DFW concessionaire Ronnie Harris of R.S. Harris LLC , who connected Brown and Buchanan with Dr. David Woody, president and CEO of The Bridge homeless recovery and housing support nonprofit. When Harris and Brown toured The Bridge’s downtown Dallas campus and learned of the organization’s comprehensive approach to supporting unhoused locals, “they were blown away,” says Woody. As Brown and Harris returned with Buchanan to meet with Woody, “they were particularly moved by the fact that here in Dallas, because of the issues of systemic racism, 63% of the folks we serve who are homeless in this community are African American,” says Woody. The goal became to directly address the pervasive poverty and homelessness that impacted the community, Woody says, noting that the group then “looked at this as a social entrepreneurship experience: What’s the problem? Can we plan to have an impact? How do we prioritize our resources? Can we craft a prototype of what this might look like, and then pursue it?” The prototype, made possible through a joint venture between GTMS and R.S. Harris LLC called GTMS RS Harris LLC, is now The Bridge Travel Essentials store located in Terminal A. The store, which opened in December 2023, donates 5

percent of its gross sales to The Bridge and also employs formerly homeless clients through Bridge partner and employment services organization Upspire , allowing The Bridge “to continue its mission to provide every homeless man and woman with the tools necessary to become self sufficient,” says DFW’s vice president of concessions Zenola Campbell. Travelers can also learn about the organization’s mission through video content and QR codes throughout the store. The Bridge Travel Essentials Store’s combination of a licensing agreement, employment opportunity and awareness campaign “creates that synergy between profit and nonprofit,” says Brown – a relationship “which is usually counter intuitive,” he adds. In just under a year, the store has already been able to make two payments of $50,000 to the organization. “Who would have ever thought that in working at a homeless shelter, we would be on the forefront of Terminal A at DFW International Airport? To be able to stand back and watch folks coming into the store and asking questions, where we can give them information about what The Bridge is, how they can contribute – it’s amazing,” says Woody. “It’s one thing to get 5 percent of store gross receipts. It’s another thing to be able to track, as a result of folks coming into the store, how they’re also moved to make a direct donation to the organization.”

Above: The Paper Planes Cafe at Vancouver International Airport equips individuals with diverse abilities with the skills and experience needed to thrive in the mainstream workforce.

YVR’s Approach Employing members of the local community has also been a key tenet of the Paper Planes Café, which opened in 2023 at Vancouver International Airport (YVR). A collaboration between YVR and Vancouver’s Pacific Autism Family Network (PAFN), the Paper Planes Café equips individuals with diverse abilities with the skills and experience needed to thrive in the mainstream workforce, says Alyssa Smith, manager of communications at YVR. “The partnership between Vancouver International Airport and the Pacific Autism Family Network began in 2021 with a shared vision to make travel more accessible and enjoyable for all, regardless of ability,” says Smith. “The result ... is a multi year agreement with YVR contributing $100,000 annually over each of five years.” “One of the key outcomes of the PAFN YVR relationship was the idea to create meaningful, living-wage employment opportunities for members of the neurodiverse community,” Smith adds,

Opposite page: The Bridge Travel Essentials Store at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport donates 5% of its gross sales to The Bridge, a homeless recovery and housing support non-profit. The airport location also employs formerly homeless clients.

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noting that YVR President and CEO Tamara Vrooman has been a long-standing advocate for PAFN, and “the partnership is thanks to her vision and leadership.” When Vrooman initially shared the concept, PAFN’s co-founders Wendy and Sergio Cocchia embraced it, and together they began planning what would eventually become Paper Planes Café. “The café “allows PAFN to provide paid (living wage) employment to our neurodiverse community,” says Wendy Lisogar-Cocchia. “This training program gives our trainees a place to learn, thrive, hone and utilize skills that will give them the tools needed for them to find long-term paid employment opportunities.” SRQ’s New Effort The success of community-forward concessions concepts has led other airports to consider similar business models in their future planning. Sarasota–Bradenton International Airport (SRQ), currently in the final leg of a $200-million dollar modernization and expansion project, plans to open Rise Up Café, an airport location of a Sarasota-based coffee shop that employs community members with intellectual disabilities. The SRQ outpost, which will be operated by SSP America , is slated to open in early 2025. “Many of the team members at Rise Up Café will be Floridians with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” says Paul Brown, senior director of airport brands and concepts for SSP America. “It’s important to SSP America to ensure this population is able to join the workforce. “Too often, this group is overlooked and denied opportunities for gainful employment,” he adds. “With Rise Up Café, we have a brand offering not only one of the most sought-after menu items in airports – coffee – but also an important mission that meets SRQ and Sarasota’s strong commitment to diversity and inclusion.” Rise Up Café and its founders, Beaver and Erin Shriver, “are leaders in ending the epidemic of unemployment among people with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” adds Brown. “Rise Up, in partnership with other local organizations, has classrooms and staff

Community-forward concessions help to galvanize the airport community due to their visibility. – Nathalie Roemer, COO of aviation consulting firm Optimas

dedicated to training this population for employment in businesses all over the community.” Concepts like Rise Up and other community-forward concessions “really help to galvanize the airport community due to their visibility,” says Nathalie Roemer, COO of aviation consulting firm Optimas. “Since concession operations serve both travelers, employees and depending on the location, sometimes also to non-travelers from the community, there is a good opportunity for workers to interact with a variety of customers to share their stories,” she adds. Roemer cites examples like YVR’s Indigenous Market and Edmonton International Airport (YEG)’s Indigenous Interpretive & Retail Centre, which showcase products from indigenous vendors as “great for giving non-profit organizations a commercial venue to showcase their products to an audience that they may otherwise not have exposure to due to costs and a lack of opportunity.” These programs are also “effective community outreach programs by bringing people who rely on the support of these organizations, as well as their friends and relatives, to the airport to experience the offers and to demonstrate that the airport is a place for everyone, whether you’re traveling or not,” adds Roemer. “Furthermore, these programs enable the airport to ‘walk the talk’ when it comes to being inclusive by providing job opportunities for everyone.” The recent rise of community-forward concessions has also inspired both airports and concessionaires to consider expanding the model. “We have partnered with local, community based non-profit organizations at every airport we operate,”

says Areas USA’s Schneider, citing the company’s plans to open a ThroughGood Bistro and Bar at William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) in partnership with Houston-based homelessness, hunger relief and social support organization Bread of Life . In addition to contributing royalties to the organization through the ThroughGood Bistro, Areas will also sell ThroughGood-branded items throughout several of HOU’s grab-and-go concepts. And at DFW, GTMS RS Harris LLC has bid on the airport’s latest concessions RFP with hopes to put a second location of The Bridge in Terminal E, says GTMS’s Brown. “The criteria for bids now includes a big community component in terms of the evaluation,” he adds, which he believes is a direct result of The Bridge’s success. GTMS also has its eye on creating similar models at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), says Brown, noting that finding a solution for homelessness is an issue especially close to home for many airports. “What’s interesting for me as a researcher [is] that there are a lot of homeless people living at airports, and it’s something that’s really not talked about but is very prevalent and very pervasive in large airports,” he says, adding that he believes concessions models like The Bridge Travel Essentials Store can be the first step to assisting unhoused locals from living at the airport to finding gainful employment from the airport. “Ultimately, you want to do something where you think you’re going to have an impact on somebody,” says Woody of the social-entrepreneurship model. “It’s not just a balm for your emotions but it’s a next step and a solution for that person you momentarily have care for.”

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The Club CLT

Enhancing Experiences Enriching Time Airport Dimensions, the global specialists in designing, buiding and operating shared-use lounges and airport experiences.

Data And Tech Usage Continue To Evolve In Airports

BY SARAH BELING

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What if walking through an airport felt like embarking on a travel agency planned vacation? What if every stop along the journey to boarding was customized and curated for your needs? What if airports didn’t make you feel like just another slightly-harried cog in a fast moving machine? While there are some aspects of the airport experience that can’t be too heavily personalized – going through the TSA security checkpoints, for instance – airports, concessionaires and transportation technology startups are discovering that there are ways to make travelers feel valued, and willing to spend their money accordingly. One key to customizing passenger experience? “Leveraging data and technology to understand customer preferences and behaviors,” says Lise D’Andrea, president and CEO of customer experience consulting firm CXE. D’Andrea notes that airports can use real-time data and analytics as well as AI-driven chatbots to track passenger preferences, tailor customer product recommendations and solicit feedback to continually improve their concessions, retail and general experience offerings.

Left: Lise D’Andrea, president and CEO of CXE, says airports are increasingly using real-time data and analytics as well as AI-driven chatbots to track passenger preferences, tailor customer product recommendations and solicit feedback to continually improve their concessions, retail and general experience offerings.

D’Andrea cites Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) as having implemented successful traveler customization programs through its mobile app that delivers real-time, personalized offers to travelers based on their location within the airport and past preferences. And customized programing like that at Miami International Airport (MIA), “which leverages biometric technology to enhance security and boarding processes while also offering tailored services to frequent flyers, such as expedited access to lounges or personalized dining recommendations,” she says, “demonstrate how North American airports are adopting technology to enhance the customer experience through personalization.” D’Andrea has also seen successful passenger experience personalization

through the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), which offers virtual assistance technology at their customer service desks, and Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), which uses mobile food delivery apps. Food Delivery Options One mobile food ordering application making waves is the Grab Airport Marketplace, an in-airport e-commerce platform powered by self-service hospitality company Servy that’s currently installed at more than 80 airports and 1,000 airport restaurants. The Grab Airport Marketplace aggregates concessions content across Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) into a unified order and payment platform,

Left, Below: The Grab Airport Marketplace aggregates concessions content across LAX into a unified order and payment platform, allowing passengers to seamlessly access and order food from multiple locations.

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