Airport Experience® News - Leadership Issue 2025

Operating a small business is not for the faint of heart, but to operate in an airport is to embrace a whole new level of challenges. With more and more transit hubs prioritizing the inclusion of small and local businesses alongside well-known national and global brands, there’s a need to address the chasm between deciding to get into the airport concessions space and being operationally ready. To fill the gap, the team at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) has created a rigorous course of study designed to get small businesses up to speed before they even pitch their concepts. The Institute of Concessions (IOC), a, free, months-long course held at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), covers everything from buildout costs and design parameters to pricing and safety precautions. The program arose out of subject-matter research on how to successfully launch in airports, says Hersh Parekh, PANYNJ’s deputy chief of intergovernmental affairs. Discussions around building an intensive training program began in 2019, but the program was set back by the Covid-19 shutdowns of 2020. When the program was finally launched in 2023, “it was after a lot of research had been put into what knowledge bases you need to have to start off on your concessions journey,” says Parekh. Cohorts joining the IOC are given access to expert-level advice on business development strategies, navigating contracts and partnerships, security and health department compliance regulations, high-volume operations challenges, pricing approaches and funding opportunities. The institute ends with a mock RFP process, with feedback provided for business owners to take with them into the competitive pitching process. Since its launch, the IOC has seen three cohorts and 45 local businesses graduate, with plans to graduate another 20 from their latest class of future concessionaires, many of whom go on to partner with prime concessionaires on airport contracts at JFK terminals. “One thing that I always like to [assess] before we launch a cohort is whether there are concessions opportunities that are going to open up on the horizon,” says Parekh. “The last thing I want to do is have businesses go through an intensive 10-to-12 week program and then say to them, ‘Now you need to wait three or four years until the next concessions opportunities come up,’ because that’s not fair to them. Otherwise they could be out operating their business,

as opposed to spending six hours a week at JFK airport,” he adds. And while the PANYNJ doesn’t make RFP decisions, they hope that by educating concessionaires and matching them with mentors from already-established operators, they’re giving local entrepreneurs the best chance to succeed. “We share lists of the [IOC] graduates with each of the terminals, and we say, ‘These are businesses that have completed a very intensive educational program and are coming in with a stronger knowledge base about how to become a concessionaire than another average business that also doesn’t have experience at the airport,’” says Parekh. “We present the businesses, but it’s still incumbent on them to then make the case for themselves as to why they’re a strong contender.” “Like An MBA” IOC alumni see participating in a rigorous course of study on the ins and outs of airport concessions management as crucial for surviving and thriving in the highly specific terminal environment. “It was like an MBA in operating at the airport,” says Villa Russo Café operator George Russo. Russo, whose family has managed a pizzeria-turned-café and adjacent events venue in nearby Richmond Hill for over seven decades, had been trying to break into the airport space for years before the opportunity to join the IOC presented itself. “Before the IOC, I would

go on LinkedIn and connect with anybody who had anything to do with operating in the airport, because I had no idea what that looked like. It’s not like a street location, it’s like Mars and Venus,” says Russo. When Russo got a call from Diana Rose, one of the founding teachers at the institute, he jumped at the chance to learn from fellow concessionaires, security personnel, architects, developers and the Port Authority itself. “I kept a notebook [from the course] that’s about three inches thick,” he says. For Queens native and Beautiful Amore Skincare founder Amerrah Danielson, the IOC “wasn’t just a training program... it was an awakening,” she says. “When I entered the IOC, I was already a business owner, but the program helped me see myself through a different lens, as a future airport [concessions] operator, as a brand that could stand on a global stage.” Danielson, now operating a kiosk in Terminal 8 with plans to open in JFK’s New Terminal One in partnership with WHSmith North America , Love From USA and Unibail Rodamco-Westfield , found that IOC sessions “equipped me with tools I didn’t even realize I needed understanding – lease terms, airport operations, compliance, and program, which seeks to mentor participants on the unique aspects of operating airport concessions spaces. Above, Opposite page: The current cohort of business owners taking part in the PANYNJ’s Institute of Concessions will join 45 others who have already graduated from the

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AX NEWS DECEMBER 2025 / JANUARY 2026