Now a novel idea of having malls at airports to relieve the boredom of passengers waiting for their flights or in transit. That is what Sea-Tac, Seattle airport in U.S., has done giving travelers a shopping experience that’s both distinctive and tempting.
“We want visitors here to feel like they’re in Seattle,” said Amy Shaw, the airport’s manager of commercial business. “We’re trying to bring in Pacific Northwest branding.”
With airports having to fund their basic operating costs and infrastructure improvements from the revenue earned by charging airlines to land, passengers to fly, the renting of space to malls has helped to increase revenue.
Besides they have had to improve security procedures and accommodate more travelers for longer periods of time since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
So, the opening of malls enables the traveler to not feel bored but also encourage retailers and others to set up shop and thus give these airports the much needed revenue for their upkeep.
“All of a sudden, any airport … can be a retail opportunity,” said Bob Mann, an airline consultant in Port Washington, N.Y. “It really has turned into a very different environment than it was 10 or 20 years ago.”
On its face, the idea of putting into airports the kind of stores usually found in malls is obvious. Retailers like to locate stores in places where there are lots of people, and airports offer a constantly changing, captive audience.
With about 1,000 flights a day, Sea-Tac had 29.9 million passengers last year and expects 30 million or more this year.
