Airport Experience® News - Retail & Services Issue 2025

Tariffs, Other Wild Cards Add Uncertainty To Costs

BY ANDREW TELLIJOHN

Bambuza Hospitality Group has enjoyed solid, steady growth in recent years. The company operates 10 locations across four airports and will start building three more – two at Sacramento International Airport (SMF) and the Connections Gourmet Market at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) – before the end of the year. Throughout the process, cost is increasingly a wild card. When every dime matters, every increase is noticeable, and tariffs have started pushing up the price of some important inputs, says Erik Ward, Bambuza’s chief development officer. “Four years ago it was the price of lumber but now it’s the price of steel everybody is trying to lock in,” Ward says. Kitchen equipment, which includes a lot of steel and is generally manufactured overseas, is also rising. In a kitchen, that’s a huge part of the expense. “It’s typical to see maybe a 5% increase annually on the kitchen equipment manufacturers’ schedule,” he says. “We’re now seeing 15% increases year-over-year. Rising construction costs have been a challenge industry-wide for several years. And now, with the added specter of tariffs hanging overhead, uncertainty is on the rise. The on-again, off-again Trump tariffs haven’t become a massive problem just yet, but they have added yet another wrinkle that operators, airports, designers and other stakeholders have to consider as they decide whether to get involved in a project. And, observers say, the instability and unpredictability of the market now – and of the tariffs themselves – means the worst is likely yet to come.

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AX NEWS SEPTEMBER 2025