This is a result I wouldn’t have expected, but according to the CEOs of both the Dubai and Amsterdam airports, “per-passenger spending at their airports has increased over last year’s levels.”
I’d have expected the opposite to be the case.
- People don’t want to spend as much time (indoors) in the airport.
- They don’t want as much interaction with other people (retail sales clerks).
- There aren’t as many airport retail venues even open with fewer passengers to serve.
- And the economy overall is suffering.
The Reason Foundation’s director of transportation policy Bob Poole writes, “With less crowding in terminals, passengers apparently have more time and inclination to shop.” I wonder if that’s what’s going on here.
Business travelers tend to buy reimbursable items like meals, while leisure travelers are (in general) more inclined towards upscale terminal shopping. The latter also get to the airport earlier. The passenger mix now skews more towards leisure than business.
On the other hand, in the U.S. people who are traveling tend to be younger and are doing so on lower fares. That’s attracted a less affluence demographic than before, also potentially pushing down airport retail sales.
Airlines are for the most part serving very little food on board, if any at all, so passengers have to scrounge for provisions inside the terminal in a way they didn’t used to have to. That could play a role as well.
I’m not flying until the vaccine arrives, but if I were, I’d be looking for food in the terminal (post-security) to bring with me on the plane.
I would also be looking for alcohol to consume.
I’m not flying until the vaccine arrives, but if I were, I’d take my own food and eat it far from the crowd before boarding and skip the alcohol. Would not drop my mask to eat or drink on a plane – no way, no how.
Are you guys looking for a real vaccine like for polio or a “vaccine” like for the flu? Honest question, I’m not sure what catalyst will get me to do normal things again but I’m not sure I’m willing to wait forever for a total cure vaccine.
Like polio.
To Johnny
A vaccine is to prevent, not cure, so your wait for a “total cure vaccine” might be rather long.
@The Masked (and gloved) Poster
I am looking for a vaccine that prevents. I’ve never heard of a vaccine that cures.
To be specific, I’m looking for two things: (1) a vaccine with a high success rate at preventing, and (2) a sufficiently large number of people having taken the vaccine to drive down the spread rate.
What scares me is that the US is full of anti-vaxxers who will refuse to get the vaccine.
Solution is simple. Anyone who declines the vaccine, gives up the right to any medical care (except out of pocket) when they get covid
Liquoring up
@Gary my hypothesis would have been a passenger mix one as well, but in the other direction (proportionally more biz, but of course off a massively reduced overall base). While many biz travelers are not flying, a lot of industries (pharma, transportation / logistics, manufacturing, health, gov, etc.) still are. Do you have a link to the pax mix data?
I experienced AMS earlier in the year and it was a fairly clever corral of passenger. The main international transit area was open when LHR was virtually entirely shut. Clearly, they’d made an effort to push stores to open, even including retailers like Gucci.
With 2 hours to kill between flights and no amenities in any lounges, I spent more than I usually would browsing around. Shops were good at making you use hand sanitizer on the way in and enforcing one way systems. I didn’t see it either in any way, but in retrospect it kinda makes sense. More captive audience than usual for those in transit, etc. And visa/travel doc checks mean people are getting to airports much earlier, at least for intl flights.
I’ve only flow domestically since March, but the few airports I’ve been such as PHL, BDL, ORD, MKE, MCO, BWI and a few others were FULL of closed stores and restaurants. I wanted to buy things and couldn’t. Two weeks ago I was in PHL from 7-9:15pm and couldn’t find a single open lounge or restaurant. Ate from a vending machine.
@AlohaDaveKennedy
You do realize, I hope, that wearing a mask doesn’t protect YOU.
It protects OTHERS from you.
So what’s the big deal about lowering your mask to eat or drink?
With flight schedules/networks extremely thinned out by the airlines at this time, connection times at US airports have mushroomed because flights are fewer/less frequent than they used to be and so the wait time at airports has become way more than it used to be.
1kBrad,
A proper mask properly used protects both the user of the mask and others around the mask user.
A mask can reduce the amount of virus dose that the mask-wearer gets hit by when near people who are infectious with this coronavirus and when in an area where infectious people have been and there is aerosolized virus still about.
The mask opponents seem to be fine with them being in line for a Darwin Award.