"Airport businesses rebound"

Monday, September 23, 2002

Airport businesses rebound
Shop: As security lines at area airports take less time to navigate,
travelers are back to frequenting shops and restaurants. 
By Rona Kobell
The Baltimore (MD) Sun


It took a few months and a lot of patience, but passengers flying out of
Baltimore- and Washington-area airports have returned to the coffee
bars, magazine racks and souvenir shops.

With more time to spare, many passengers say, they're more likely to
browse and buy discretionary items such as chewing gum or entertainment
magazines than they were a year ago.
 
"I'm buying stuff I usually don't buy," said Capt. Kristen Zebrowski, a
nurse at Andrews Air Force Base, while lingering at Baltimore-Washington
International Airport's Starbucks a few hours before her flight to
Turkey. "I'm into the gum and the mints, that kind of thing."

It's harder to mail a letter, and to buy nail clippers, nail files or
letter openers. But after a slow season last fall, passenger traffic
picked up significantly at all three airports by Christmas. And a year
after the Sept. 11 attacks, officials from BWI, Dulles and Ronald Reagan
Washington National Airport say that business is almost back to normal.

"I think, overall, that the businesses are pretty pleased," said Tara
Hamilton, spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports
Authority, which manages Dulles and National.

HMSHost Corp., the Bethesda-based company that manages shops at all
three airports, reported sales for the first six months of this year
were flat over last year's numbers. Spokesman David Milobsky called the
numbers a "pleasant surprise," in light of National's closure.

National's businesses suffered when the airport shut down for nearly a
month after Sept. 11 last year. But the airport used $40 million in
federal aid to cover businesses' rent and fees for several months.
Hamilton said that allowed most businesses to stay, and said that both
National and Dulles have also added businesses.

At BWI, frequent travelers will notice more changes. The Maryland
airport was the first in the country to have a federalized security
force, and it needed some room to expand its checkpoints. Several
businesses had to move. Two businesses -- a hot dog stand and a popular
sports bar -- are gone indefinitely, because the airport had no space to
relocate them.

What Milobsky calls the "dwell factor" has boosted business for Host,
which manages shops at about 60 airports in the country, including Los
Angeles International Airport and Chicago's O'Hare International
Airport.

Some travelers are arriving for flights two or three hours early, only
to breeze through security in 10 or 15 minutes. With luggage checked and
time to spare, they're shopping.

"I like to look around, be casual. I'm probably buying more," said
Evelyn Peterson, a sales coordinator who was sipping coffee at BWI two
hours before a flight to Cleveland.

Milobsky said that, at most airports, the shops beyond the security
checkpoints are faring better than the ones in front.

Wendy Rukmini Walker, owner of the As Kindred Spirits shop at National,
said that when the airport shut down after Sept. 11 last year, she
wasn't sure she could open again. She took all the merchandise to her
two other stores in the area.

Now, she says, people can see the security lines are short, so they
spend their extra airport time in the stores. Some go through security
and come back out again to shop.

"We have such a wonderful, devoted clientele," she said.

What hasn't returned to the artsy store are the cheese knives, letter
openers and bookmarks, which Walker is no longer selling at her airport
shop.

BWI had to sacrifice several shops to make room for expanded security
checkpoints.

A Nathan's hot dog stand and the Orioles Lounge were in the way of
security. BWI spokesman John White said the airport tried to find a new
place for the bar, which was packed during college basketball's March
Madness and regular Sunday football games. A spot may open during the
airport's $1.8 billion expansion project.

At Concourse C, a Sunglass Hut found itself in the middle of a security
checkpoint and moved into a storefront near a busy Burger King.

Another business, Travelex, moved from the security checkpoint area to
the front lobby.

In April, BWI unveiled a redesigned checkpoint that featured
theme-parklike mazes where the line forms. The Transportation Security
Administration runs the checkpoints, and most people are getting through
security in about 10 minutes.

But it was only five months ago that the airport's lines snaked through
corridors and around shops. Few dared losing their place in line to grab
a sandwich or a shoeshine.

"That line that came down here, that killed us," said Claude Flager, who
works at the BWI shoeshine stand between the airport's C and D piers.
Now, the shoeshine men say they're so busy that on some mornings they
can barely finish a cup of coffee.

Other BWI businesses report solid sales, too.

At Celebrate Maryland in BWI's international pier, manager Shconda Henry
said demand has increased for patriotic merchandise.

"Everything that has red, white and blue on it, they buy," she said.

Only the mail hasn't come back. At National, travelers can mail letters
in business centers at two piers. But BWI and Dulles lost their
mailboxes last year, due to security concerns. Airport authorities at
both are negotiating with postal officials to bring back the mailboxes.


 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?conf=DCConfID8

*****************************************