Airport Experience® News - Customer Service Issue 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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AX NEWS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2024