 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Shopping Centers Today -> May 2002
 PRINT THIS STORY: |
  CHANGE TEXT SIZE: |
|
SOME AIRPORT RETAILERS STRUGGLE MORE THAN OTHERS
By Debra Hazel
 |
| Tenants located before security checks have been especially hard hit. |
Though air travel went down after Sept. 11, those who did fly were eating and drinking more as U.S. air travelers coped with longer airport waits by killing time in restaurants and bars. Meanwhile, other retailers were coming up with innovative ways to increase sales.
But grim as retail looked in the months following the terrorist attacks, it at least held up better than the industry it serves; the atrocities sent an already slumping airline industry careening (SCT, December 2001).
Retailers took some comfort from the fact that those who were traveling were spending more — especially those passengers who faced flights without meals. Early this year, sales per customer rose an average 20 percent from last year for the retailers at the six U.S. airports managed by Los Angeles-based Westfield America, said Timothy S. Lowe, vice president of airport business development. As a result, overall sales for the period were down only 10 percent, compared with a 20 percent decrease in enplanements (the number of boarded passengers).
Sales at Newark International totaled about $7 per enplaned passenger, up from $6, Lowe said.
Food and beverage sales were up 12 percent to 14 percent early this year in some locations, said Sheldon Klapper, president of the Center for Airport Management, a Portland, Ore.-based research and consulting firm.
“Post-security food and beverage is doing best,” said Linda Lacomb, manager of airport retail for Seattle-Tacoma International, adding that sit-down bars have done particularly well. And Klapper noted that newsstands saw increases of 5 percent to 6 percent, as travelers picked up extra magazines and books.
Few believe that this boost will last, however. As check-in procedures continue to smooth out and customers get savvier about the length of the process, dwell time will drop yet again, experts say.
“No one expects that Americans will get to the airport three hours early forever,” said Ginger Evans, vice president and manager of aviation for Fort Worth, Texas-based architecture firm Carter & Burgess.
What may stick are the grab-and-go packaged meals — sandwiches, salads, pizzas — that travelers can carry on board.
Specialty sales, meanwhile, continue to struggle; these are down 5 percent to 7 percent, not inconsistent with mall apparel stores. The hardest-hit of all are the duty-free stores, reports Marjorie Brink, a principal at consulting firm Leigh Fisher Associates, San Mateo, Calif.
Generalizations are difficult, however, because the situation varies by airport, depending on such factors as terminal layout and the health of particular airlines. Locations heavily dependent on Southwest Airlines, for instance, continued to do well, because it did not dramatically cut its schedule.
“The specialty stores in Tucson [Ariz.] haven’t had much of a hit,” Brink said.
One important factor is whether a business is situated before or after the security clearance area. Stores and restaurants located before the security area have been affected most — travelers are now focused on just getting through the lines, while friends and family say their good-byes earlier than they used to.
Some airport retailers sought relief from their landlords to compensate for lower sales, but with mixed results; airports have offered rent rebates on a case-by-case basis, said Deborah Kravitz, a principal at Provenzano Resources, a Sherman Oaks, Calif.-based retail consulting firm. At Newark, Westfield received just one request for help, while tenants at Reagan National, outside Washington, D.C., shuttered for weeks, were given abatements of up to 50 percent. Boston’s Logan International and Orlando (Fla.) International, among others, refused to provide any relief at all.
“There were cases where we would like to help, [but] we can’t,” Westfield’s Lowe said. “But others are getting help that don’t need it.”
Meanwhile, airport retailers have found themselves working hard to maximize sales from the shoppers they have, not unlike their shopping center counterparts, Klapper said.
This has led to some innovative approaches. At Logan, retailers take turns placing products on carts to sell to passengers awaiting security clearance, with news, candy and gift items selling particularly well. The restriction of carry-ons to two per person has inspired yet another program to encourage sales: At Reagan National, Westfield created a special regulation-size bag that holds both the permitted small personal item, such as a purse, and small purchases. The bag sold out rapidly, Lowe said.
Meanwhile, traffic is picking up slowly, noted Robert Weinberg, president of MarketPlace Development, Boston, which consults with several airports in the United States.
“The world,” he said, “is getting back to where it was.”
 | Current Issue March 2010 |