Airport Experience® News - Post-Conference Issue 2025

Murray of SSP emphasized the practical necessity of partnership. “The agreement can’t possibly contemplate all the things that are going to happen over 10 or 12 years,” he noted. “There has to be a relationship that seeks to understand what are the business pressures that we might feel as a privately held company, and then what are the objectives of the overall airport to benefit its passengers.” Knight expressed his desire for operators to help shape the airport’s future. “We want to see them being more of a co-creator of that passenger journey,” he said of concessionaires. “I just can’t stress enough, the importance of the concessionaire influencing the airport has been something I’ve been craving. I want you to be able to talk about what is actually beneficial for you in contract.”

consultants want to hear “The good, the bad and the ugly” from existing concessionaires to improve future programs. Data-Sharing Goals Collecting and sharing actionable data between airports and concessionaires faces significant timing challenges, according to the panel. “Once that RFP is almost ready and once it hits the street, certainly the airport isn’t looking for information from concessionaires at that point,” said Kevin Lemmons, director at Unison Consulting Group. “You really have to be very far in advance, having those conversations in advance of that RFP process.” Ferraguto emphasized that concessionaires shouldn’t hesitate to share sensitive business information with consultants. “We’re interested in knowing: what the wage rates are that you’re facing, what are your sales to CAPEX ratios, goals, how much is it costing for build out, what is the payback term that you’re targeting,” she said. “This information is not shared, it’s used.” Simplify The RFP Process The panel identified overly complex RFPs as a major industry pain point, with submissions sometimes reaching 1,500 pages and evaluation criteria often misaligned with concession goals. “Simplify the RFP,” Lemmons urged. “The airports do not want 10 proposers at 1,500 pages each that somebody that doesn’t know concessions is having to read through and evaluate.” Eric Friedman, airport planning consultant at ICF, recommended that airports “clearly state multiple times your goals” and “make it easy for them to respond with a positive outcome.” Ferraguto highlighted that many procurement issues stem from airport RFPs being managed by city or county departments unfamiliar with concessions. “It’s the same department that is buying paper towels and lawn service,” she explained. “Very often, the documents, even the wording, doesn’t lend itself to concessions.” The consultants advocated for a “period to cure” to fix inadvertent submission errors, but emphasized that critical elements should be “identified very clearly with no wiggle room, but everything else should be curable,” Lemmons said.

Consultants Weigh In In a separate panel titled “ Airport Operator Relationships – The Consultants’ Perspective ” consultants from Vantage Group, AirProjects, ICF and Unison Consulting Group , outlined how the planning process, data collection, RFP development, and post-award engagement can all be improved through better communication and collaboration between airports and concessionaires. The session was moderated by Alea LaRocque, vice president, business development for WH Smith North America . Consultants largely agreed that bringing concessionaires into planning discussions early on creates more successful terminal and concession programs. “If we can understand what their thoughts might be on a program that we help establish… I think that’s vitally important,” said Rob Hale, senior director of commercial development at Vantage Group. “By the time the procurement comes out, level of surprise is low, level of excitement is very high.” Ann Ferraguto, principal at AirProjects, urged operators to participate actively in pre-solicitation engagement. “Through the master planning process, there’s often an industry day, and we really encourage concessionaires to seize that opportunity and provide input,” she said, adding that

Below: In a separate session, leading industry consultants shared insights on how to improve airport relationships with concessionaires. Pictured after the session, the panel participants were (left right) Kevin Lemmons of Unison Consulting Group, moderator Alea LaRocque of WH Smith North America, Eric Friedman of ICF, Ann Ferraguto of AirProjects and Rob Hale of Vantage Group.

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AX NEWS MAY 2025