As amenities sit unused, airports reconsider their design
It’s difficult to tell whether Singapore Changi Airport is an entertainment complex or an airport. Changi features a three-screen movie theater, an indoor butterfly garden, a rooftop pool and inventive eateries that attract as many locals as travelers. With more than 400 shops, including Apple and Tiffany & Company (there are two), the Changi Airport would be the fourth-largest mall by the number of tenants if it were in the US. An audience that is both captive and often affluent has made airport commercial square footage some of the most lucrative in the world. But the pandemic has crushed the commercial calculus at airports, and no one is sure what comes next. The leading airport for concession and retail sales in the US is Los Angeles International, with revenue of $3,036 a square foot, according to a 2018 report from Airport Experience News. Chicago O’Hare clocks in second with $2,718 in sales a square foot. By comparison, the average mall retailer is around $325 per square foot, according to 2017 data from CoStar. But that’s all gone now, said Alan Gluck, a senior aviation consultant at ICF. “In general, sales are in the toilet,” Gluck said. For example, concession sales at San Francisco International Airport in May were down 96% from a year earlier. Duty-free concession sales were down 100%, he said, because all the stores were closed. Until passenger traffic returns, Gluck said, airport retail properties are not going to be profit centers, and even when it does return, it may be at reduced capacity.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2020-08-19/general/as-amenities-sit-unused-airports-reconsider-their-design
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As amenities sit unused, airports reconsider their design
It’s difficult to tell whether Singapore Changi Airport is an entertainment complex or an airport. Changi features a three-screen movie theater, an indoor butterfly garden, a rooftop pool and inventive eateries that attract as many locals as travelers. With more than 400 shops, including Apple and Tiffany & Company (there are two), the Changi Airport would be the fourth-largest mall by the number of tenants if it were in the US. An audience that is both captive and often affluent has made airport commercial square footage some of the most lucrative in the world. But the pandemic has crushed the commercial calculus at airports, and no one is sure what comes next. The leading airport for concession and retail sales in the US is Los Angeles International, with revenue of $3,036 a square foot, according to a 2018 report from Airport Experience News. Chicago O’Hare clocks in second with $2,718 in sales a square foot. By comparison, the average mall retailer is around $325 per square foot, according to 2017 data from CoStar. But that’s all gone now, said Alan Gluck, a senior aviation consultant at ICF. “In general, sales are in the toilet,” Gluck said. For example, concession sales at San Francisco International Airport in May were down 96% from a year earlier. Duty-free concession sales were down 100%, he said, because all the stores were closed. Until passenger traffic returns, Gluck said, airport retail properties are not going to be profit centers, and even when it does return, it may be at reduced capacity.<br/>
