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CAA: Airport News, "O'Hare has it all for fliers"
Monday, January 17, 2000
O'Hare has it all for fliers
BY GILBERT JIMENEZ TRANSPORTATION REPORTER
The Chicago Sun-Times
Once dull and institutional, O'Hare is not your father's airport anymore.
With an army of new food, beverage and retail shops lining its concourses
and food courts, O'Hare's final tally of 1999 rental revenues should top
$141 million--a 67.5 percent increase over 1995, city aviation spokeswoman
Monique Bond said.
The figures put O'Hare at the forefront of a national trend among airports
that want to be something more than bus stops for planes.
"We haven't gone as far as we can," Aviation Commissioner Thomas R. Walker
said.
O'Hare already has a branch of the Children's Museum, Museum of Broadcast
Communications, a display of the fighter plane flown by namesake aviation
hero Butch O'Hare, a new business center, a health club, medical offices,
dental office, post office and much more.
Through a coalition with local musicians, the airport even offers live
music.
And now it is going to be home to a huge dinosaur skeleton model on loan
from the Field Museum of Natural History.
At O'Hare and 22 other top airports, the Host Marriott Services Corp. has
brought in restaurants as upscale as Wolfgang Puck's to rub elbows with Gold
Coast Dogs, Lou Mitchell's Express and the Goose Island Microbrewery.
New retail shops also vary in status and appeal: Michael Jordan Golf,
Brookstone gadgets and the Wall music stores are some examples.
In all, there are now 180 concessions at O'Hare, and even more space may be
used to expand the offerings.
"The strength of the concessions program is its commitment to promoting
local flavor in tenant selection and providing opportunities for local firms
to do business at the airport," Bond said.
Last year, O'Hare won the Airport Council International's first place award
for best food and beverage concessions and Best Airport in the World honors
from the Business Travelers International organization.
"We think we have to benchmark ourselves against the best airports in the
world," Walker said.
Among the competition is Philadelphia International Airport, where travelers
can find vendors ranging from Godiva Chocolatier to the Gap and PGA Tour
Shop. Los Angeles International boasts a Puck's restaurant as well as Sushi
Boy and the California Pizza Kitchen.
In the Washington, D.C., area, Dulles International has a Bally shoe store
and a Liz Claiborne shop, while Reagan National is the airport to visit to
find Victoria's Secret lingerie.
So what's going on? Will airports begin attracting local residents to eat
and shop?
"Airports will never be shopping malls. People won't be going to airports to
get Christmas presents. We don't expect that," said Todd Dorrien, a
strategic planner with Host Marriott.
"But the food and beverage piece is a little bit different. People need
sustenance."
And in that, Midway--where concession space is being tripled to 45,000
square feet in a new terminal soon to be built--has an advantage.
People who live and work in the neighborhood could walk in off the street to
grab a bite to eat from an expanded array of restaurants. Although the
little airport now has only two eateries, that will sprout at least 20,
officials said.
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