Airport Experience® News - Food & Beverage Issue 2026

want grain bowls, colorful veggies, flavorful proteins – food they’d choose intentionally, not as a compromise,” she says. “Eating well used to feel like a sacrifice you made while traveling. Now guests actively seek it out. That shift has changed how we think about menus and what we lead with.” CI’s Zemmour also notes this meaningful shift. “Ten years ago, you were weird if you were looking for an organic green juice. Now it’s normal. You have to have something healthy,” he says. “And I think we’re going to start seeing more and more with organic as well. It has started, but it’s not overwhelming yet. But I was in Denver recently and saw vending machines full of organic stuff – it’s going to get there.” Adding to this, Eric Baines, CI’s director of food and beverage, reflects on a recent visit to Chicago for the National Restaurant Association Show: “Two years ago at this show, there was zero acai booths, last year there were two, this year there were six and they were really busy.” Healthy food has been a part of the conversation for some time now, but it does seem to be ramping up significantly, HMSHost’s Steelman notes. “I think ever since the GLP-1 movement came out, people have taken it a lot more seriously, and they’re really focused on better-for you items through their snacking periods, through their breakfast, lunch, dinner periods, everything else,” he says. “Protein seems to be the biggest driver right now.” Mendola believes that the new dietary

guidelines released last year are influencing the protein trend as well. “You see it everywhere – even Twix bars with protein at this point. We’ve seen a great uptick in these kinds of sells,” he says. “A great example is in Buffalo [Niagara International] Airport , where we worked with a local farm called Elmhurst that makes great protein shakes. We introduced it into the program and they’ve been selling left and right because they come with about triple the protein that you would get from a standard dairy-based drink.”

Above: One way Brian Kumrow, vice president of culinary service at SSP America, incorporates food trends into his menus is to take a familiar and popular menu item like a burger and add a global or regional twist to it.

ago would’ve been hidden in an aisle, now there’s five or six different versions of it right in the front, and people are getting it and using it in different combinations.” HMSHost gathers data from all around the world and is seeing that this demand spans geographical demographics but is especially prevalent among younger travelers. “They want those bold flavors, they want spices, sauces, global cuisines, whether it’s ramen, Middle Eastern, Indian, Latin American, all these different types of flavors,” notes Jeff Steelman, North American vice president of culinary for HMSHost. Paradies Lagardère’s Wiggins expects “global cuisines with bold, complex flavors to continue shaping what shows up on menus,” and Alice Cheung, senior director of brands and concepts for Paradies Lagardère’s Dining Division, adds to this another prevailing and persistent trend in the industry: “We’re also seeing a major rise in demand for healthy food. The default Caesar salad isn’t enough anymore. Guests Right: Demand for healthy food in airports has been around for many years now. Thanks to the recent emergence of GLP-1 diets and new dietary guidelines, the better-for-you movement has only grown in recent years with no signs of waning. (Areas USA-operated Luna Grill at San Diego International Airport shown.)

Above: Sal Mendola, director of culinary and concept development at Areas USA, notes that global cuisine like Filipino, Korean and Vietnamese remain very popular with travelers.

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AX NEWS JULY/AUGUST 2026