Airport Experience® News - Post-Conference Issue 2024

overall is that customer expectations, particularly post-Covid, have changed,” she said. “A physical retail experience from the consumer’s perspective is infused by what they’re seeing in the digital environment, so it’s bringing about this merging of physical and digital worlds together.” She also pointed out that among Millennial and Gen Z consumers, 80% say that their purchasing behavior is determined by a brand’s approach to innovation and technology. Gen Z consumers in particular are drawn to frictionless payment like what’s offered by Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology. Aranza then shared his experience as one of the earliest adopters of Just Walk Out technology at his airport stores, and the first to introduce the tech to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport with its Grab & Fly concept. In addition to Grab & Fly, Star Concessions’ Eatzi’s Market & Bakery also features the technology and the company will be introducing a third store soon. “I love the technology, but it sometimes can be viewed as very expensive—I’ve chosen to keep working with this because I know at some point Amazon is going to get all these costs down so that I can put many more of these in airport environments,” Aranza said, adding that Amazon has worked with him to minimize costs with smaller footprint stores and other solutions. “We believe the future is frictionless,” Marcus added. Next up, Lynnwood Bibbens, CEO and founder of ReachTV , spoke on the topic of “Automating Your Data To Unlock Growth.” For the last eight years, ReachTV - which is now at 2,400 gates, 750 venues, 90 airports, and in 500,000 hotel rooms - has gathered data from millions of users, which it then uses to better understand their habits. “It’s about bringing data into the decision making process on how you program and where you place certain things along the airport journey,” Bibbens said. “We can use the data to shape the experience for people traveling through.” This data, which ReachTV gathers from a variety of sources and partners, can be used to create targeted and personalized marketing pushes. “So if someone is at a certain gate, I can let them know that there’s a Starbucks five feet away, for example,” he said. Bibbens stressed the importance of collaboration among all stakeholders. “The whole point for me today is to open up the possibilities of collaboration between everyone to make data actionable and make the customer journey much better.”

Right: Lynnwood Bibbens, CEO and founder of ReachTV, shared possibilities for collaboration among airport stakeholders to make data actionable and improve the traveler experience.

Chris Gwilliam, senior vice president of global business development for Airport Dimensions , presented next on “The Continuing Evolution Of Traveler Expectations,” featuring highlights from the company’s latest independent research study on travel trends and expectations. The first data point offered is that 42% of U.S. survey respondents say they spend their airport time either at the gate or relaxing in public seating, driven mostly by older travelers, with Gen Z spending their time mostly browsing online. “This definitely indicates a need for continued investments in airport WiFi infrastructure,” Gwilliam pointed out. “But I think most importantly it highlights a need to really digitally target younger generations to turn them into that spend.” Other highlights of the survey included respondents wanting to see more automated kiosks and vending machines, as well as walkthrough retail concepts that combine dwell time spaces with retail experiences; interest in earning rewards for their purchases; and preference for having purchases delivered either to their homes or destinations. “Overall, the survey definitely highlighted a trend toward different retail versus less retail, with a focus on automation, experiential and digitally enabled retail,” Gwilliam said. Next, Brian Hengelsberg, senior associate in charge of Aviation Studio for LGA Partners , spoke on “Crafting Airport Experiences with Sustainable Retail and Food & Beverage Design Trends.” He began by pointing out how harmful air travel can be for the environment. “I’ll use myself as an example: For round-trip travel 200 miles to here at DFW from Pittsburgh, my home airport, is roughly three quarters of a ton of CO2, just for my seat,” Hengelsberg said. “Think of that when you’re looking around this room at how many are here and out in the hall and what that means for our environment. We have a responsibility as designers, as concessionaires, as airports, to make a difference.” He offered some examples of building design solutions that are more sustainable, including using local resources when building to avoid unnecessarily long delivery of goods; passive designs for airport exteriors to harness the environment to

manage interior conditions; and retail and food and beverage marketplaces that take advantage of natural light and are open concept to allow HVACs to work more efficiently throughout the space. Finally, Jason Johnson, founder and president of H.U.B.B. Kitchens , presented on the topic of “Revolutionizing Airport Dining: Unveiling the Power of Ghost Kitchens.” H.U.B.B. Kitchens is an ACDBE certified ghost kitchen provider that began by taking over a single brand concept, California Pizza Kitchen, at Raleigh Durham International Airport (RDU) and repurposing it into a Virtual Food Hall in partnership with REEF Technologies . “We wanted to turn a single concept space into a 9-to-10-brand operation where people could conveniently order either from their phone or from a kiosk. We would make it fresh and we would either deliver it to them or they could pick it up in a secure locker,” Johnson explained. He knew he would need recognizable brands to give the concept credibility but he also dedicated 20-30% of the menu to local brands. “And those brands to date are making about $20,000-plus a year in passive income because of this one location,” he said. “We opened in July 2022 and the operation was cash flow positive by October 2022 and we got net profitable by July 2023. We took a $1.7 million space in 2019 and we turned it into a $2.7 million space in 2023 doing less traffic.”

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AX NEWS APRIL/MAY 2024