Airport retail shops and restaurants aren’t run by the brands you know. Most of the time they’re licensed by a big concessions company like OTG, Delaware North, or HMS Host. And these companies know that,

• Passengers go to their gate and are afraid to leave. Maybe they’ll find their gate first (make sure it really exists?) before venturing off to go buy food or other sundries. But often they will worry they don’t have enough time.

• Operating in airports is expensive. They’re often ordered to charge prices within 10% of what you’d find in the city the airport is located (though they may just ignore these rules) yet rents are high, it’s logistically challenging to bring supplies through airport checkpoints during off hours, and it’s challenging to hire labor that will pass security checks and is willing to commute to the airport and park or take public transit.

As a result they look to both drive down labor costs through self-service, and bring concessions right to passengers. Anything that will drive up sales while limiting cost!

Airports are also behind this idea, too, since in addition to straight rent they also frequently take a percentage of sales (and depending on the airport’s master lease agreement, operating carriers at the airport may take a slice, too). That’s why airports like Dallas – Fort Worth and Chicago O’Hare have removed moving walkways. Passengers would get on and simply skip the shops they pass along the way.

Concessionaire OTG is famous for its iPads. Even in ostensibly super premium, invite-only “Classified” at Newark, patrons order their food via iPad.

CBGB’s was a legendary New York punk rock club, but when OTG licensed the brand at Newark… order via iPad.

CBGB at Newark, complete with iPad ordering system pic.twitter.com/UrllhhBXDm

— Hillary Reinsberg (@hreins) December 23, 2015

However OTG is ditching the iPads. They are not, however, adding staff to take orders (they say they aren’t reducing staff, either). Instead, they expect people to use their own devices instead of being given devices to use. They’re six years behind American Airlines!

The program is now in beta testing and available at many of OTG’s locations—and early success has given the company faith that it can remove its old systems. In September, the current QR codes will be replaced with new ones, giving users the ability to order at any restaurant in their terminal from a single link. (Currently the links are venue-specific.) Pre-orders are also coming, starting in September at Newark, allowing travelers to schedule a pickup at a designated time up to 24 hours ahead. Rick Blatstein, chief executive officer of OTG, says that feature will be especially helpful for customers who are likely to be in a hurry amid a tight connection.

Food delivery off of a website or mobile app is hardly new. I’ve had good luck ordering food to my gate at Dallas – Fort Worth. For instance last summer I came of of a flight from Austin, and while we taxied to the gate (I verified that our gate was empty!) I ordered food to where my wife, daughter and I were headed on a fairly short connection. And Tortas Frontera long offered order head though you’d have to pick it up.

Airgrub started food pre-ordering in airports eight years ago. American Airlines even integrated Grab, earning revenue by driving food pre-orders in many of the airports in which they operate. Food delivery service Airport Sherpa ceased operations at the start of the pandemic. There have been a number of fits and starts driving towards getting people to order food on their phones, and also to deliver food to where people are waiting.

In airports food preparation and food delivery all needs to be done quickly, because people are under a time crunch, at the mercy of airline schedules – often with short connections that airlines engineer in order to maximize the time their planes are in the air and to minimize total travel time on connecting itineraries which drives up ticket sales relative to competitor schedules. Self-service is a part of that, but so driving down costs and pushing sales is as well.

(HT: @crucker)