Airport Experience® News - Post-Conference Issue 2025

I think that there’s going to be a bit of a revolution in our business. I’m looking forward to [seeing] what AI (artificial intelligence) brings us, [focusing on] understanding our customers and being able to customize something for the customer. – Steve Johnson, president and CEO, North America, Avolta

MONTES: The Trump administration has also targeted DE&I programs. How do each of you view the role of diversity within your organizations in terms of leadership and representation and your supplier partnerships? PARADIES: It’s no different for us [than before]. [Diversity, equity and inclusion] is who we are and how we do business. It’s helped our company become much better and will continue to help our company get better. MURRAY: I’d like to answer in a different way. [The threat to DEI programs] is using public policy to somehow villainize what should be a natural thing for us to do. KEIR: For us it’s just doubling down on what inputs we can do to make a difference. [The administration’s stance] it doesn’t change any of that. [We focus on] what can we do to make sure it’s a level playing field organization. JOHNSON: What you call it ESG or DEI or corporate responsibility, it’s all the same to me. It’s what you do as an organization for the communities you operate in. It’s very simple. No matter where you’re born, your sexual orientation or race, what language you speak first, there’s a home for you in this industry. I think that that’s what makes this industry so vibrant. BERNAL: The restaurant industry was built on DEI. That’s where we came from. That’s our workforce. That’s how people go from being a dishwasher to being a president or VP or CEO. I don’t see that ever changing. MONTES: Looking forward to the next few years, what are you thinking about? What changes do you anticipate in our industry? JOHNSON: I think that there’s going to be a bit of a revolution in our business. I’m looking forward to [seeing] what AI (artificial intelligence) brings us, [focusing on] understanding our customers and being able to customize something for the customer. We’re putting a lot of energy and time into our loyalty program – we’re going to know who customer is and how they act, therefore be able to customize their experience. That’s exciting for all of

us because we’re going to take the friction out of the process, not just for the consumer but also for our employees, because they’re going to know what’s coming at them. I think that can change how we do business. YABLUN: We already get a lot of data. It’s doing something with it [that’s challenging]. We need to turn it into some type of customization and add AI to dig deeper. We’ve got to make the offer compelling enough for them to buy something while they’re en-route and make it special. For that we need more data. We have an email, we have a phone number, we have a little bit of information. We have to delve deeper, but right now we don’t do much with what we have. MURRAY: We’ve got to find other revenue sources. The P&L has too much pressure on it, and when you combined it with the capital it costs to build the places we run out of turf. We’re not delivering financial goals to an airport so we need to find some other way to make ourselves valuable. KEIR: There are some exciting changes there from a customer or passenger point of view. In five or 10 years, with the capital deployment across U.S. airports, the experience of passengers – whether it’s good or bad for us – will be better. In 10 years we’ll be selling to another generation, and a lot of that generation weren’t shop in physical stores. It comes back the fact that we have to be flexible. The model will have to change. Revenue sources must continue to morph, but we’re all retailers and restaurant operators and entrepreneurs and we are used to spinning quickly on the dime. All we ask is that people support us, and if there are quite laborious rules out there, they need to be looked at. BERNAL: I’m taking a glass-half-full approach. There are 8-9 billion people on the planet and more of those people are traveling. Their lifestyles are improving around the world. Longer term this still going to be a good industry to be in and grow in. We’ve got this little blip, but I look at it and remember we survived Covid when

The restaurant industry was built on DEI. That’s where we came from. That’s our workforce. That’s how people go from being a dishwasher to being a president or VP or CEO. – Carlos Bernal, CEO of Areas USA PARADIES: Long term, we’re all bullish on this industry. We’re all investing hundreds of millions of dollars. Every one of our companies is doubling down or tripling down on North America. I think the story here is, yes, there are short-term challenges. Yes, we need to understand them better, more collaboratively. Covid helped us get the ball moving, and maybe we took a few steps back, but maybe good things come out of tough situations. We all got better, stronger because we had to. Covid accelerated a lot of change, and what we’re going through now will probably accelerate things as well. we were all slashing and burning, literally. We’re not doing that today.

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AX NEWS MAY 2025