Retail is taking off in airports around the country. It?s turning the air travel portals into mini shopping malls accommodating the more than 665 million passengers who have some time to spare or those who want to fill up on a meal before boarding.
?There?s been such dramatic growth,? says Pauline Armbrust, editor and publisher of Airport Retail News, a biweekly publication based in West Palm Beach, Fla. ?It?s safe to say many airports have tripled the number of stores and restaurants they have.?
Nationally recognized retailers have jumped at the chance to be a part of the ever-growing air travel industry, realizing that airports are a great place to find people with money to burn and time to kill.
But its not all good news for retailers who are faced with a different experience than they would at a traditional mall ? like longer hours, higher rent and restrictions on everything from pricing and location to size and design.
But the benefits of a modernized retail scene for an airport are twofold: it keeps passengers satisfied with a variety of familiar brand names, products and eateries, and it generates more revenue for the airport to finance its growth.
The D.C. region?s three airports are following the national trend and beefing up their retail and restaurant landscape.
The inside of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, for instance, looks much more like the inside of a regional mall after the opening of ?National Hall? with more than 65 stores and restaurants in July 1997. Passengers have their choice of retailers like Brookstone, Waldenbooks, the Disney Store and Wilson?s Leather and eateries like California Pizza Kitchen and Legal Sea Foods.
Airport officials say they are accommodating passengers who want recognizable name brands rather than the generic book store and coffee shop that filled in airport vacancies years ago.
?Expectations are changing,? says Les Cappetta, senior vice president of North American Development at HMS Host, the Bethesda-based travel concessions operator. ?Travelers expect branded, upscale [concessions] and better customer service.?
Airport retailers already have a captive audience, although a passenger?s main reason for being there is to fly, not to shop. The trick is to turn those passengers into shoppers by offering them the kinds of shops and eateries where they want to spend their money, officials say.
?Airports try to create a sense of place … to turn a passenger into a shopper,? says Scott Samson, regional manager at Westfield Concession Management, which handles the retail mix at Washington Dulles International Airport and at Reagan Airport.
And there?s more passengers to convert into shoppers than ever before. Last year 665.5 million people took to the friendly skies ? nearly 118 million more than in 1995.
?With all the additional air travel, there?s been a greater pressure on airports to grow,? Mr. Cappetta says. ?The airports are assets of a city or a county and they need money to finance that growth.?
Airport officials have realized a better mix of tenants would get people to spend more money ? adding to the airport?s bottom line. Tenants contribute a certain percentage of their gross sales to the airport.
Retail and food went from being an afterthought tucked in a corner of an airport to a top-of-mind feature, Mr. Cappetta says.
Ms. Armbrust says airport officials started to realize in the early to mid-1990s that offering different retail and food locations was a good way to please passengers ? an airport?s No. 1 priority.
?At one point, you never saw that much that was different ? it was cafeteria food and generic gift shops,? says Gary Davies, director of commercial development at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. ?We are an industry that has gone in a totally different direction.?
Portland, Ore., International Airport was the first major airport to offer a mall concept to its passengers, Ms. Armbrust says.
Pittsburgh International Airport in the early 1990s was the next in line to take the concept to a new level. The airport?s ?Airmall? includes dozens of retail concepts and restaurants like the Gap, GNC, Tie Rack, Seattle?s Best Coffee, the Discovery Channel Store and T.G.I. Friday?s.
?Airports are often great followers,? Mr. Davies says. ?We?ve taken that [idea] and tried to create what people want.?
And it?s paying off for area airports.
Reagan Airport, which had 15.9 million passengers last year, raked in $6.7 million from food, beverages and retail sales last year. The airport collected $2.6 million from its tenants in 1996.
Dulles, which had 20.1 million passengers last year, made $9.3 million from concessions in 2000. The airport raked in $2.6 million in 1996.
Officials expect Dulles to bring in more money in the next couple of years because the airport is in the process of renovating parts of its facility and expanding other areas for more traffic and more retail and restaurants.
BWI, which had 19.6 million passengers in 2000, raked in a total of nearly $6 million in its fiscal year 2000, which ended in June, from both retail and food and beverage sales. The airport reported revenue of $3.4 million in fiscal year 1996.
BWI, which has been undergoing major construction and expansion, currently has more than 40 stores and eateries, including Starbucks, the Body Shop and Wilson?s Leather.
?People will spend money if the right concept is there,? Mr. Cappetta says.
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