Airport Experience® News - Post-Conference Issue 2024

CONCESSIONS DEEP DIVE Panelists Share Expertise on RFPs, Data Sharing Strategies and ACDBE Challenges

BY SARAH BELING, SALLY KRAL AND ANDREW TELLIJOHN

There’s no doubt airport concessions Requests for Proposals are evolving, but the pace and magnitude of change is not at the level many concessionaires would like. Airport commercial managers and concessions operators sat down for a robust discussion with Yasmin Sheriff, principal & managing director at Strategy Maven on the rapidly evolving landscape of concessions profitability — with all agreeing that conventional approaches to managing revenue need to be reexamined. “Profitability is what makes the world go ‘round,” said Tosin Kasali, vice president of business development at HMSHost by Avolta as he noted “the opportunity to reset expectations” around legacy notions of pricing, timelines, sustainability, and labor realities in airport-concessionaire partnerships. “What does the world look like 15 years from now?” added Patrick Murray, deputy CEO of SSP America on the need for concessionaires and airports to make structural changes on “the front end, rather than the backend” of planning. For commercial managers, the RFP process is changing too. Brad Wolfe, commercial manager at Salt Lake City Department of Airports (SLC) said that his team had made significant logistical

Right: Patrick Murray of SSP America suggested concessionaires and airports need to make structural changes to RFPs “the front end, rather than the backend” of planning.

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AX NEWS APRIL/MAY 2024