MARCH/APRIL 2021 / V19 N233
NEW
FEDERAL FUNDING BOOSTS AIRPORTS, CONCESSIONAIRES
Doling Out Data:
Sharing Traffic Insights Benefit All
Vending Offers
Limited Touch Options
Airport Advertising
Strategies Evolve
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12 Show Me the Money
The passage of further pandemic support by Congress will provide much-needed relief to both airports and concessionaires.
16 Number Hungry
Concessions operators have historically relied on limited passenger data when planning for passenger traffic ebbs and flows. With lower passenger volume, more insights are being shared than ever before as both airports and concessionaires look to maximize revenues and limit expenditures.
20 Never-Ending Vending
Gone are the days when airport vending machines were few, far between and sparsely stocked, with new concepts and a touch-conscious public driving a renewed interest in this option.
24 Ad Opportunities
While one major in the airport advertising space decided to pull out due to the impacts of the pandemic, other companies see new opportunities.
29 Reaching the Summit
The AX Virtual Summit was a two-day virtual event that reunited the industry for robust panels and informative talks on the future of airports.
4 Letter From the Editor-in-Chief 5 Data Check
Passenger surveys have been bleak since the pandemic hit, but a significant number of people are finally making plans for and looking forward to traveling again.
6 Latest Buzz
Fresno Yosemite International Airport is following through on its $115 million plan to expand its terminal and international arrivals facility.
32 Rendering to Reality
Air traffic continues to stall, but Kansas City International Airport hasn’t halted its plans to invite proposals for its concessions program and has even adapted the process for the new times.
34 Advertising Index 35 Before You Take Off
AtYourGate is bringing a robot companion to its airport delivery operations that has been turning heads and helping customers keep their distance.
9 Director’s Chair
Greenville-Spartanburg International’s David Edwards discusses his ‘lean and mean’ approach to airport management and his current efforts to right-size offerings to match lower passenger numbers.
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RENDERING TO REALITY
CONCESSIONS KICKOFF MCI Solicitation Hits Street After Virtual Reality Meet-And-Greet BY ANDREW TELLIJOHN
Above: Kansas City International Airport released a concessions RFP early this year for 51 locations in the new terminal it’s building. Proposals will be due this summer.
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a nsa s Cit y I nter nat iona l Airport’s (MCI) march toward the completion of a new terminal took another step forward in January when the request for proposals that will govern its concessions program hit the street. Nothing during the COVID-19 era is completely normal and MCI officials created an RFP with some unique twists, both to create the best program possible for its customers and to minimize the pandemic’s impact on bidders’ ability to raise the capital necessary to build out the program, says David Long, deputy director of aviation overseeing properties and commercial development. In another unique twist, the RFP is business model agnostic, allowing
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developers, prime concessionaires or a cluster of individual companies to band together to take their shot at convincing Kansas City officials that their ideas for filling the 51-location program are the best. “We’ve got an opportunity that comes around only every 50 years,” Long says. “You convince us, concessionaires, why your overall plan that also matches your overall business model, why that is the best format for us holistically.”
RFP Details The RFP does require that each proposal include a single lead bidder and that the mix chosen to fill the spaces meets the city’s 16 percent goal for Airport Concessions