Reimagining Airport Dining: Insights into the Most Popular Chains and Their Unique Challenges
In our ongoing effort to craft a comprehensive ranking of airports based on what travelers truly care about, we turned to our trusted partners at Yelp to identify which airport eateries stand out in popularity. Among the many factors influencing nominations, the quality and appeal of airport restaurants emerged as a top priority for travelers.
Discovering the Top Airport Food Brands Through Data
Yelp’s extensive database proved to be an invaluable resource, providing insights through page views, search frequency, photo uploads, reviews, and star ratings. The findings revealed a surprising mix of high-end and budget-friendly brands sharing the same space, challenging traditional assumptions about airport dining.
Leading the list was Vino Volo, a boutique wine bar, followed by familiar fast-food giants Chick-fil-A and Shake Shack. What caught our attention was the eclectic blend of upscale and casual brands coexisting within the airport environment. For instance, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, known for its premium brews, shared the rankings with Dunkin’ Donuts, while Smashburger competed alongside McDonald’s and Burger King.
The Airport Experience: A Realm of Contradictions
This unexpected pairing underscores a broader truth: airports are peculiar microcosms. They serve as liminal spaces-neither here nor there-where the usual rules of time and space seem to bend. Travelers often find themselves in a state of suspended reality, where routines are disrupted. It’s common to see someone sipping a craft beer at 9 a.m. or strolling in pajamas at 4 p.m., all amid a backdrop of generic storefronts and endless lines that blur into a monotony of sameness.
Data-Driven Insights into Chain Performance Inside and Outside Airports
To better understand this phenomenon, we delved into a wealth of data from Yelp, analyzing reviews from millions of users across tens of thousands of locations for the most popular chains. By mapping each business’s footprint-inside or outside the airport-we could compare their ratings and performance in different environments.
What emerged was a clear pattern: chains tend to perform markedly differently inside airports compared to their standalone counterparts. For example, Peet’s Coffee, a pioneer of the East Bay coffee scene, boasts a 3.7-star rating outside airports but sees its ratings converge to a mere 3.6 stars within airport terminals. Similarly, Dunkin’ and Smashburger, which enjoy higher ratings outside, see their scores diminish significantly when operating in the constrained airport setting.
The Great Equalizer: Homogeneity in Airport Food Offerings
This convergence suggests that airports act as equalizers-dampening the disparities between high and low performers. The best brands see their ratings decline, while lesser-known or lower-rated outlets often improve, resulting in a more uniform star rating landscape. Essentially, the airport environment levels the playing field, creating a homogeneous dining scene where most options hover around the middle of the star scale.
Understanding the Roots of Airport Food Concessions
Our conversations with industry insiders, including Gabe Hiatt, a seasoned travel editor and airport food expert, shed light on why this homogeneity exists. A key factor is the complex web of licensing agreements that govern airport concessions. Many well-known brands don’t operate directly but are instead managed by large concession management firms that secure long-term contracts with airports.
This arrangement means that what appears to be a local or independent restaurant is often part of a broader corporate network. For example, a Starbucks in an airport might be run by the same parent company as a nearby airport lounge or retail outlet, leading to similar standards and ratings across different locations.
The Unique Challenges of Airport Food Service
Establishing and operating restaurants within airports involves navigating a labyrinth of logistical hurdles. Space is limited, rents are high, and construction must often be completed during overnight hours when the terminal is least busy. Securing permits, managing security protocols, and coordinating deliveries require meticulous planning and significant investment.
Distributors face restrictions on access, often needing special permits and insurance to deliver supplies, which must pass through multiple security checkpoints before reaching the storefront. Staff scheduling is equally demanding; employees often arrive before dawn, shuttling in from distant parking lots, and work long hours under strict security protocols.
The Economics of Airport Concessions
Despite the high costs associated with construction, staffing, and logistics, brands continue to participate in airport concessions because of the immense exposure to millions of travelers. These brands typically earn a licensing fee-ranging from 3% to 8% of sales-and benefit from brand visibility among a captive audience with time to spare before their flights.
However, the margins are shrinking. Post-pandemic, many concessionaires report profit margins plummeting from around 12% to near break-even levels, prompting some to question the sustainability of their airport operations.
Why Do Major Chains Persist in Airports?
Airports rely heavily on well-known national chains to meet traveler expectations. Customers anticipate familiar flavors and brands, and deviations can lead to dissatisfaction. For chains, the allure lies in brand exposure and the potential to reach a broad audience, even if the profit margins are slim.
Many brands opt to license their names rather than operate directly, partnering with specialized contractors who handle day-to-day operations. This approach allows brands to maintain their core identity while navigating the complex airport environment, albeit at the expense of the ambiance and menu diversity they might offer elsewhere.
The Paradox of Homogeneity and Resilience
Some industry observers argue that the uniformity of airport dining options isn’t merely a consequence of corporate strategy but also a response to traveler preferences. In a setting where convenience and familiarity are paramount, offering a limited but reliable selection may be more effective than diverse, high-end options.
From our perspective, airport restaurants resemble extremophiles-organisms thriving in extreme conditions. Despite their seemingly mundane appearance, their existence under such intense pressures is a testament to resilience and adaptation, making them a fascinating microcosm of modern commerce.
Join the Conversation
Our exploration of airport dining continues! What questions do you have? Are there surprising facts about airport operations or travel habits you’re curious about? Whether it’s about the habits of bankers, multilingual language acquisition, or water quality in different cities, we’re eager to hear from you.
If your question is featured, you’ll receive an official Department of Data badge and ID card. This week, we thank our airport experts-Gabe Hiatt, Hannah Sampson, and Ned Russell-for their invaluable insights.
