Airport Experience® News - Food & Beverage Issue 2024

ONE-ON-ONE

program to ensure that we have the talent that we need to execute this aspirational program. And we have such great partnerships with the local community through our MWBE program, where we’re bringing in a lot of talent from the local area. And those two things combined have really helped us make sure we’re not leaving great talent on the sidelines and that we’re able to have the workforce we need to be able to deliver this program. As it relates to the broader JFK activity, it is a bold, transformational program, and it does require a high level of close and careful integration among parties to be able to safely execute on that program while making sure that we collectively are focused on keeping existing JFK customers safely moving through the airport. WARD: One stated goal for The New Terminal One is to “set a new global standard for customer experience.” Can you expand on what that means? What is NTO’s vision for the customer experience? AUMENT: When we think about the customer experience - we call them our guests because they are visiting with us for a time and we really want it to be an extraordinary moment for them - that comes to fruition in lots of different ways. Visually, as you go into the terminal, there is the dramatic nature of the design. [The terminal will be] flooded with natural lights, with tall trees and a bit of an air of Central Park. Then we’ll have this

authentic New York experience in the terminal and that’s about high-end luxury shopping experiences. It’s about unique restaurant experiences that reflect the diversity and flavor of the New York market. We want [travelers] to have a journey where they step back and think, wow, this is really an extraordinary part of my trip. A big part of delivering on that is a shared vision for the guest experience. We’re in the marketplace with RFPs for services from customer service training to janitorial services to baggage handling systems to ground services. And with every procurement we put out, we have very

Top: The $9.5 billion, privately financed New Terminal One at JFK is currently under construction, with the first phase scheduled to open in 2026. Above: Natural light, trees and “an air of Central Park” will all contribute to the extraordinary design of the new terminal, which will serve international travelers only.

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AX NEWS JUNE 2024