any airport that actually cares will adapt a policy like PDX's street pricing, and then actually furnish the airport with places that exist out in the real world--not just these weird airport-only chains (who tf is wolfgang puck) or one-offs (e.g. "TrendyNeighbourhood Burger," "TouristDistrict Tavern")
I guess a really nice, mall-like airport with amenities you don't want to use (because they're too expensive) is still slightly better than a smaller airport whose amenities you don't use (because they don't exist). At least you have an option, though it doesn't stop it from being annoying.
Sidenote, maybe LAX needs $15 sandos if it means they can afford to unshit their airport.
The airport in Seattle proper (Boeing Field) didn't have any restaurants when I was there last. Perhaps you're thinking of the airport in the city of SeaTac?
> actually furnish the airport with places that exist out in the real world
I clearly remember a Burger King in one of Moscow airports, probably DME. It is a regular Burger King serving everything one would expect, except the 1.5x prices.
In Australia most of the airports have Macca's or KFC selling at street prices. I think that sets precedent for the other food outlets to not price gouge.
Unfortunately, LAX already does have $15 pre-packaged turkey sandwiches in Terminal 5. Thankfully, there’s a chick-fil-A and Einstein’s in brand-new Terminal 1 with reasonable prices. This motivates me to fly southwest more often.
Not aware of an airport-only chain there either, but European airports night not need them since they tend to funnel you through massive duty-free shopping malls. It will forever be a mystery to be who buys all that shit and keeps these stores in business. A bottle of liquor would need to be at a ridiculous price for me to deal with the hassle of transporting it back from an international trip.
Ha, you should watch slavic tourists in those duty frees (source: l’m slav) - a bottle of any above-cheap imported alcohol might be 10$+ cheaper there, nice cologne would save you even more and has higher chance of not being a knockoff from Asia. When they have a chance to save few dozen bucks - they do and I don’t see what’s bad about it, maybe apart from overflows in baggage compartments. I imagine folks like Swedes with alcohol monopoly and pretty fly taxes on alco would understand this too
In Houston, they have a single city contractor operate all the concessions under the different branded establishments at each airport.
It's the biggest-ticket way to do it, therefore it should provide the biggest bonus for some individual. Maybe even more than one individual could be intended to share the glory.
The long-time franchisee was a very well-established & respected Houston-based restaurant corp that came in a decade ago on their strength of multiple local restaurants of various cuisines which were popular, successful, and affordable for at least occasional dining for most Houstonians.
This could not hold up, recently dethroned by a nationwide airport-centric conractor with a deal crafted to compete on purely financial terms.
>With an operating presence in 12 countries throughout Europe and the Americas, Areas offers a very broad range of food services designed to meet the expectations of both travelers and landlords in airports, highway service plazas and railway stations.
Doesn't appear they would ever expect to prosper from non-captive food service.
I can only imagine some of the councilmembers who voted in favor of the change could reason that sandwiches already cost $15 so they might as well take a bigger cut of that themselves.
My spouse and I met in Portland and lived there for almost a decade. Every once in awhile we get a craving for Burgerville and haha-only-serious joke about flying to PDX and back with just enough time to eat at the airside location.
I guess a really nice, mall-like airport with amenities you don't want to use (because they're too expensive) is still slightly better than a smaller airport whose amenities you don't use (because they don't exist). At least you have an option, though it doesn't stop it from being annoying.
Sidenote, maybe LAX needs $15 sandos if it means they can afford to unshit their airport.