Airport terminals get face lifts inside and out
Service, tech upgrades join revamped facilities
For business travelers crisscrossing the country or the globe, airport terminals can be akin to a second home.
Those beehives where the flying public gets boarding passes, checks bags and waits for flights are also the first and final glimpse a traveler has of a city, a business hub for concessionaires, and — depending on the experience — a key factor in whether a passenger boards a jet in a tranquil or testy mood.
Now, airlines and airports are spending hundreds of millions of dollars building and revamping terminals across the USA, putting in work stations, adding Wi-Fi and transforming building exteriors into architectural standouts.
“The terminal is key,” says Deborah McElroy, executive vice president of Airports Council International-North America, which represents governing bodies that own and run commercial airports throughout the USA and Canada. “That’s where the passenger spends the vast majority of their time at the airport, and that’s where there are several opportunities to make a great impression or for the traveler to have difficulty.”
Such improvements can be particularly important to those who stay on the road for work.
“The terminal experience sets the tone for the entire trip,” says Brett Snyder of the airline industry blog CrankyFlier.com. “If you have someone sitting in a dingy facility with one chain restaurant and a newsstand, then people are going to walk on that airplane feeling worse than if they are able to get a nice meal and do a little shopping.”
But a massive terminal upgrade may not be so appealing to other travelers. “For those people who just want cheap tickets, an expensive ... renovation is the worst thing you can do,” Snyder says. “Those costs ultimately result in higher ticket prices or fewer flights.”
While it varies from project to project whether the airport, an airline or a combination of the two pays for terminal upgrades, airports have been increasingly boosting food offerings, shopping choices and other services, partly because they recognize that can increase the portal’s revenue.
“I can sit down and work because the airport offers free WiFi,” McElroy says. “I can have a glass of wine because the airport has a high-end wine bar. ... There’s a wide array of products and services that allow them to be productive and also to enjoy the airport experience.”
At Dallas/Fort Worth’s Terminal A, passengers can get a bag tag at a kiosk, then have an agent ac- tivate it and place the luggage on a conveyor belt. “It’s very efficient for the customer,” says Kevin Doeksen, managing director of customer planning and analysis for American Airlines.
In contrast to new contemporary spaces emerging at many airports, the alternative can be embarrassing, some travel watchers say. The Global Gateway Alliance, an advocacy group focused on improving New York area airports, has noted the poor condition of LaGuardia’s Central Terminal Building, as well as the lack of free Wi-Fi at LaGuardia, Newark and much of JFK.
“People are spending more time in airports as a result not only of delays but security and layovers,” says Stephen Sigmund, the alliance’s executive director. “It’s a big difference between spending two and three hours in LaGuardia’s central building with leaking roofs and doing it in the modernized (Tom) Bradley terminal at LAX.”
In January, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state would take over management of construction projects at both LaGuardia and JFK from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
“Our airports are the gateways to New York for nearly 50 million people a year,” Cuomo said in his State of the State address. “We are going to redevelop those airports the way they should have been redeveloped many, many years ago and make us proud of that gateway once again.”
Los Angeles airport officials noted the importance of having a state-of-the-art international terminal.
“The Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX is the first and last impression of Los Angeles for millions of travelers every year,” Los Angeles World Airports Executive Director Gina Marie Lindsey said in a statement. “Passenger-friendly terminals and conveniences are among the must-haves required as airports around the world compete for the economic vitality that world-class airports create.”