Airports are unlike anywhere else. Almost self-contained towns, they have their own rules, regulations, and nuances. For most people, they are a transitory space, often both the first and last touchpoint of the holiday, a ‘treat yourself’ moment or a final hurrah before heading home.
Regardless of whether people are travelling for business or leisure, consumers expect to have ‘free’ time within an airport, which has opened the doors for numerous leisure opportunities. Food and Beverage (F&B) is a fundamental offering, and a 2024 Future Places Lab study noted that over 60% of Millennial and Gen Z travellers now associate airport quality with its F&B offering.
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While on the surface, airport F&B might look similar to its high street or shopping centre counterpart, it’s a very different beast. Take the landside operations, for example.
These are high-risk areas that almost anyone can walk in and access. Considerations when creating something as seemingly simple as a coffee shop range from how fire-resistant the materials are to ensuring they are ASIAD compliant.
Airside F&B considerations
When we look at F&B operations airside, one of the first challenges to overcome is how to deal with the peaks and troughs of passenger numbers. One minute, an airport can be quiet; the next, thousands of people are flocking in looking for a bite to eat before jetting off. Both moments need to be considered to ensure smooth-running operations and maximum efficiency.
No one wants to be sitting solo in a cavernous space, but neither do they want to feel squeezed in. When ‘window shopping’ for where to eat, the psychology of seeing an empty restaurant can be off-putting, but so too can imposing queues out the door (which themselves cause logistical headaches for the overall flow of airport walkways).
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By GlobalDataA good example of how this has been overcome is with our recent project with Avolta at Stockholm airport, SAMLA City Kitchens. Rather than a series of individual restaurants, SAMLA has taken inspiration from the growing popularity of food halls, featuring individual traders offering a communal dining experience to create a vibrant, buzzy, and engaging setting. The seating has also been split into different zones to cater for different travellers’ needs while creating a better ebb and flow in both busy and quiet periods.
A restaurant’s offer and USP must be clear, concise, and easy to understand.
Attracting customers is step number two. Prime F&B locations are quickly snapped up, and in a highly stimulating environment, every retailer and hospitality brand will be trying to grab the attention of the captive market. A restaurant’s offer and USP must be clear, concise, and easy to understand.
LCD screens are a fantastic way to grab attention and control messaging. They are bright, can use moving elements, and can be quickly chopped and changed – from conveying live wait times, to switching between breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Adapting to travellers’ demands
Next comes delving into the customers’ needs, which are completely different in an airport to a high street restaurant. In airports, people are often more on edge with departure times looming over them. They are not there for a long and leisurely meal, and it is the role of the operator to do everything possible to ease the worry of potentially missing the flight and therefore creating a more relaxed and enjoyable (albeit short!) dining experience.
This means within the design, travel-hub-specific elements need to be considered, such as how and where departure and information boards are placed. Building into the model additional points of reassurance can have a big impact on customer experience. For example, communicating the average speed of food arriving from the point of order, or having digital payment options which can be accessed at any point during the meal.
Grab-and-go options are also growing in popularity. In fact, a 2023 SITA Passenger IT Insights report revealed that 74% of travellers prefer mobile ordering and contactless payments in airports, with the ability to pre-order from security or lounge areas rapidly becoming an expectation. When combined with platforms that can sync real-time flight data, it gives people the feeling of control and alleviates travel anxiety.
Offering an all-day menu
A final consideration is the menu. Airports are a melting pot of people with different preferences, bringing together comfort seekers and culinary explorers. Visitors will be on different time zones as people arrive and await transfers, meaning while one person might be ready for dinner, the next is seeking breakfast.
Hospitality businesses need to be able to operate across all day parts as well as offering regional specialities alongside international staples, all of which can boost average spend. Designing menus which have a strong breakfast, lunch and dinner offer and can cater to all the moving variables, without being 50 pages long, is a real challenge.
Operators such as Giraffe have really excelled in this space. Clever positioning as a ‘world kitchen’ means it makes sense to have a breakfast bap, katsu curry, and burger all on the same menu. There are treat options for those looking to indulge, and lighter bites for people who don’t want anything too heavy ahead of long travel.
Operationally, airport restaurants are incredibly challenging.
The restaurants are designed to be fun, friendly, and colourful, with a mixture of seating from tables for two to larger groups. Combined, this means Giraffe can comfortably cater to almost any age group, and to everyone from couples to families to big groups of people travelling together. A well-executed ‘secret’ to its incredible success at multiple airports around the world.
We know people are seeking options in the airport, whether it’s a sit-down meal or a grab-and-go. The biggest mistake we see is believing this creates a guaranteed formula for success. Operationally, airport restaurants are incredibly challenging.
Add to this that the build cost of often being, in our experience, 20%-30% higher than their high street counterparts, it is no surprise that the path to success is littered with those who have tried and failed along the way. However, for those who do succeed, the benefits are incredible.
