Today the airport concessions industry is at a crossroads. The current situation is not good; the status quo has many challenges; change in the business framework – the model – is needed. And we – airports and concessionaires – have choices: there is more than one way to change the model, to make the business more sustainable, more resilient, more equitable. Change may be fixing the model to continue with the industry we have all come to know. Change may be acknowledging the challenges and accepting a different offer. Change may be something completely out of the box, a change that no one is even thinking about yet. Whichever way we go, it’s a choice that we need to make together – airports and concessionaires together, the industry as a whole. It’s a choice that will affect not just us but our customers, the traveling public, and the experience they enjoy as they travel through our facilities.
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​Air travel news this summer has been dominated by headlines about cancellations, delays, pilot shortages, and frustrated passengers. It has been a summer of discontent! But …

The Airport Restaurant & Retail Association (ARRA) urges airports to relax concessions pricing policies in this period of high inflation in order to avoid a second financial crisis for airport restaurateurs and retailers. ARRA recommends airports:

• Waive contract restrictions on the frequency of price changes
• Waive contract approval requirements of price changes
• Adopt adaptive pricing that permits individual concessionaires to respond as necessary to cost pressures and market conditions

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Executive Summary

As summer begins, passenger confidence is returning. Two months ago, the aviation industry enjoyed a strong spring break. Since then, after a short dip, passenger traffic resumed its steady growth. Summer is starting strong and appears to be robust. However, the longevity of this leisure passenger-driven recovery is unknown. Further, what will the recovery of business and international travel look like? This uncertainty means the concessions industry recovery is far from certain. Moreover, recovery—when it occurs—will not resolve systemic issues in the airport concessions business that were evolving before the pandemic.

Survival and Revival
Message from Chair and Executive Director

January 2021
Dear ARRA Members and Colleagues:

The work of ARRA looks much different than anticipated when the organization was founded just a year ago. Although the human and economic impacts of the COVID-19 global pandemic continue to unfold, the impact on the global aviation industry has been devastating. And while the pandemic has sweeping global consequences, the day-to-day experience of living through this crisis is deeply personal. Unlike a crisis which most of us witness from afar, we are each experiencing this unprecedented crisis firsthand.

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:

​Thank you for holding this hearing today. The Airport Restaurant & Retail Association (ARRA), representing the businesses, including many small, minority, and women owned businesses, that operate the retail stores and restaurants serving airports and air travelers nationwide, is seeking your support and help to ensure that these companies survive. This hearing, focusing on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the restaurant industry in the United States, is well timed. ARRA writes today in support of additional relief and assistance for restaurants everywhere, including those that are located inside airports and their terminals. Federal relief should also be targeted to assist retail operators at airports, who also provide vital services to air travelers and face the same daunting challenges as restaurant businesses at airports and in our communities. Although they may not provide sit-down dining, many of these businesses offer food and beverage options for travelers on the go, such as prepared sandwiches, snacks, fruit and refreshments. 

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:

​Thank you for holding this hearing today. The Airport Restaurant & Retail Association (ARRA), representing the businesses, including many small, minority and women owned Airport Concession Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (ACDBEs), that operate the retail stores and restaurants serving airports and air travelers nationwide, is seeking your support to ensure the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program and the ACDBE Program continue and that the ACDBE companies survive this unprecedented air-traffic downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This hearing, focusing on the DBE Program at the Department of Transportation (DOT), is well timed. While we are writing to emphasize that there is a continuing need and compelling government interest in the federal DBE and ACDBE programs and register our strong support thereof, our message today is that unless Congress acts quickly, many of these companies and these programs may not have a future. Without immediate aid, many DBEs and ACDBEs and the important benefits these programs provide our nation’s airports, highway and public infrastructure will be lost. It is that simple. 

The Honorable Gavin Newsom
Governor
State of California
1303 10th Street, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814

Dear Governor Newsom:

On behalf of Airlines for America (A4A), the principal trade and service organization of the U.S. airline industry, Airports Council International – North America (ACI-NA), the principal trade association representing the local, regional, and state governing bodies that own and operate airports in the United States and Canada, and the Airport Restaurant and Retail Association (ARRA), the voice of restaurateurs and retailers who operate concessions at airports across the U.S., including small minority and women-owned companies, we are writing in hopes of resolving what appears to be an unintended consequence of some recent state orders regarding restrictions on indoor dining in bars, clubs, lounges and restaurants in counties with high COVID19 infection rates. Specifically, these unintended consequences surround the requirement that food can be served only via take-away service, which is presenting unique challenges to the operations at commercial service airports in California.

Dear Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Schumer and House Minority Leader McCarthy:

As you consider the next phase of coronavirus relief, we urge you to provide much needed assistance to airports and the diverse group of aviation concessionaires that provide valuable services at airport facilities across the country. Both airports and airport concessionaires have been hit hard by the pandemic and the significant loss of revenue throughout the aviation system as passenger levels have fallen by 70 to 75 percent from last year’s levels. The impacts on airports and the businesses that serve them has been severe and the prospects for a quick recovery are dim. Air passengers, upon whom airports and concessionaires depend, are not projected to return to pre-pandemic levels for several years at best.

The airport concessionaires that make up the memberships of our associations – companies large and small, many of which are Airport Concession Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (ACDBEs) -- have been hit hard by the dramatic reduction in air travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic over the past six months. Year-over-year, many of our member companies have seen revenues drop between 50 and 95%. These businesses are dependent on air travelers and many may not survive, or will not recover, until air passenger volumes return to pre-pandemic levels. Air passengers, on which concessionaires and airports depend, are not projected to return to pre-pandemic levels for at least 18-36 months, and possibly as long as five years.