"Shoppers still have to fly to get to Pittsburgh airport's Airmall"

Monday, December 9, 2002

Shoppers still have to fly to get to airport's Airmall
By Jim Ritchie
THE PITTSBURGH (PA) TRIBUNE-REVIEW


Holiday shoppers once again will have to go about their gift-grabbing
without the benefit of the Airmall at Pittsburgh International Airport. 

The shopping mall intertwined with airline gates will not reopen to
local shoppers anytime soon, despite merchants' concerns about sales as
airport traffic has declined with the shrinking of US Airways, the
airport's dominant carrier. 

"There's still no access to the other side of the checkpoint unless you
have a ticket," said Bob Blose, the Transportation Security
Administration director in Pittsburgh. "That's not going to happen
anytime soon." 

Security restrictions imposed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks allow only passengers holding airline tickets beyond the
airport's main security checkpoint and into the Airside Terminal. With
the bulk of the Airmall situated in that terminal, the non-traveling
public has been banned from the Airmall. 

The Airmall blazed a new trail among U.S. airports when it opened in
1992, becoming the first airport shopping center in the country.
Although it targeted travelers, the Airmall also pitched itself as a
unique shopping experience to Pittsburghers and pledged to sell
merchandise without the markups typically seen at airport shops. 

Name-brand stores continue to open at the 100,000-square-foot Airmall,
including The Gap, Clinique and Brookstone. Brooks Brothers opened a
store there Friday. 

The Airmall has been copied, but it still consistently ranks among the
world's best. This year, a J.D. Power and Associates survey said the
Airmall has the second-best eateries and third-best retail shops among
U.S. airports. 

Airmall operator BAA Pittsburgh, which leases the Airmall space from the
Allegheny County Airport Authority, said the absence of local shoppers
has dented sales in the past year, but has not brought store owners to
their knees. Perhaps more troubling is the scaling back of flights by US
Airways, which controls about 90 percent of Pittsburgh International
traffic. 

The move comes at a crucial time - the Airmall historically registers
its highest monthly sales in December. 

"What we have experienced has not been devastating because fewer people
are flying, but travelers are coming two or three hours in advance
because they still fear the security issues," said Lou Coccoli, an owner
of six Airmall restaurants. "They have more time at the airport. They're
eating and drinking more." 

Still, Airmall officials are closely watching sales figures, waiting to
decipher the numbers in relation to the security policy and US Airways
cutbacks. Passenger traffic at Pittsburgh International is down about 8
percent from last year. 

"We're waiting to see how everything turns in over the past week," said
Tina Richardson, an Airmall spokeswoman. "It's tough because we have
fewer people traveling through the airport, fewer flights." 

The decision of whether to ease the restriction and allow people without
tickets into the Airside Terminal is not Blose's to make. It's a
national policy affecting all commercial airports. That means
transportation leaders in Washington, D.C., would have to change their
minds. 

Even so, Blose agrees with the policy. He received a letter from police
working at the airport saying they support banning shoppers, mostly
because there are fewer mall-type problems - theft, loitering and
littering. 

Also, allowing shoppers could add to the wait at the main security
checkpoint, which could delay airline passengers trying to board a
departing plane on time, Blose said. 

Kent George, executive director of the county Airport Authority, which
owns the airport, wants the Airmall reopened to shoppers, and has said
so in letters sent to the Transportation Safety Administration. 

It shouldn't matter who has access to the Airside Terminal and the
Airmall shops as long as they have been checked at the main security
checkpoint, he said. 

"Who cares whether it's a passenger, a customer or somebody that's going
out to a gate to meet somebody else?" George said. 

There was no indication on Friday whether Airmall sales were above or
below expectations after the Thanksgiving holiday. Officials aren't sure
what to expect. 

Last Christmas' sales figures are not a good comparison because the
holiday came soon after the terrorist attacks, which brought air travel
to a standstill. 

Even comparing this year's numbers with the holiday season in 2000 is
not valid because US Airways, in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization,
has scaled back flights this year.


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