Airport Experience® News - Post-Conference Issue 2024

down” specialty retail and incorporate hybrid locations, said Bray, with two packages in Terminals A and B currently available. The airport team plans to issue its RFP in August 2024 with tentative award dates from January-March 2025. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) The SEA properties team is looking up rather than out. “As we’ve grown, we’ve become more challenged in terms of our opportunities for space, so we’ve decided that we’re going to expand upward,” said Bridget Boldt, senior manager of business dining and retail. Building a mezzanine-layout of outdoor patios, prayer and meditation rooms, offices and concessions concepts around a crown-jewel staircase and performance venue, SEA will have 13 spaces available for food, beverage, and specialty retail, including one pre-security F&B concept. Food and beverage concepts will have 12-year terms while retail will have 10, said Boldt, adding that the airport’s introductory kiosk program is a separate venture that will also seek its own RFIs. With the World Cup approaching in 2026, RFPs will be issued shortly after the conference, said Boldt, with proposals due in July.

Right: Due to space constraints, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is expanding up, not out, with a mezzanine-layout of outdoor patios, prayer and meditation rooms, offices and concessions concepts, according to Bridget Boldt, senior manager of business dining and retail.

AXC SESSION: TRENDS MIXER

Innovation in the aviation industry is as robust as ever, with new strategies and best practices coming to the fore on a regular basis. This year’s Trends Mixer included presentations from a broad range of industry experts on the latest thinking about everything from sustainable design to new strategies for revenue generation. The first presentation, titled “The Store of the Future: Insights on Leveraging Just Walk Out Technology to Innovate Physical Retail,” came from Ashye Marcus, senior business development and strategy leader for Amazon , and Gilbert Aranza, president of Star Concessions, Ltd. Marcus began by highlighting some trends happening in the marketplace. “The big thing that we’re seeing Left: Gilbert Aranza, president of Star Concessions, Ltd., and Ashye Marcus, senior business development and strategy leader for Amazon, discussed the applicability of Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology in the airport environment.

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AX NEWS APRIL/MAY 2024