Airport Experience® News - Post-Conference Issue 2025

Half of our business is in New York City. All our collective bargaining agreements are in negotiation at the same time. They’re asking for the sun, moon and the stars above. – Jeff Yablun, CEO, OTG Management

[scheduled] but 50 aren’t there. The cascading and negative effect on us is that we’re not supplying service. Obviously, the unions in our sector do a good job of service workers assembling the votes. We’re not going to change those things, but we need to change how the airport responds to and adapts to what is a working condition that we have. WARD: Shifting gears, the sheer number of RFPs out for bid continues to be overwhelming. What percentage are your companies bidding on? PARADIES: About 40%. It’s hard to compare but I would say it’s triple, or maybe double, what we would have passed on before. We’re all more disciplined. Deals that were borderline four or five years ago, we probably aren’t bidding on today. Obviously

that’s a risk because you may not see that contract for 15 or 20 years. MURRAY: I think it also involves the amount of money in the marketplace, particularly with whatever happens with the U.S. economy. Our [parent] companies are going to react to that. I think we will see airports that don’t have enough responses to RFPs because there actually isn’t enough capital to build all those restaurants. KEIR: There have been RFPs where no one has bid, and I think that’s a clear enough message to the industry and that particular airport. JOHNSON: Even if there are only one or two bids, something’s wrong. In this industry the good RFPs get six, seven companies bidding. We know [opportunities] work and which ones don’t. The problem is a lot of the less sophisticated companies don’t know that. They’re going to bid and they’re going to get in trouble. Right now, there are six companies [for sale] in our industry. Why? Because they can’t do what they promised to do. WARD: I wanted to turn to the new presidential administration. Statements and policies have turned off some international travelers. Are you feeling it yet in terms of broad-based reduction in travel? JOHNSON: The first three months of the year were flat, which is a disaster from a growth standpoint. Traffic is 1% off, where traditionally it would be up 3%-4%. I think that Trump [mentioning Canada potentially becoming] the 51st state has prompted Canadians not to come. European traffic is down 5% to 7%. SOCHA: If I look at forward bookings on the [national] park side, we’re relatively flat compared to last year, but a lot of that can be drive traffic. The first 100 days [of the Trump Administration] has been erratic. I think we’re all trying to see where it actually level sets. But the Americans and consumers pretty resilient, right? They are still going to keep traveling. I don’t see that changing. They may spend less, but I still believe they’re going to be traveling.

WARD: What about tariffs? Are you feeling the impact yet on the price of the goods you purchase? KEIR: Some things you can manage if you are a large sourcing operation and you can shift things around over time. I think the message we probably all give is [about flexibility]. When Target or Best Buy [are hit with tariffs], they’ll change prices. In our industry, some contracts tell us to come back in a year [to request a price change]. If we sign a deal that is wrong because we’ve got the rent wrong, that’s on us. But if the big inputs are very different – like tariffs or labor changes to a significant level – I ask for flexibility. I ask for airports to understand the impact that we are going through and to help. There have been RFPs where no one has bid, and I think that’s a clear enough message to the industry and that particular airport. – Toby Keir, CEO of WH Smith North America

I think we will see airports that don’t have enough responses to RFPs because there actually isn’t enough capital to build all those restaurants. – Pat Murray, CEO, SSP America

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AX NEWS MAY 2025