Southwest Airlines operates 89% of flights and 92% of seats out of Houston Hobby airport this month, according to schedule data from Cirium. They have suspended inflight alcohol service indefinitely. So everyone is pre-gaming according to state alcohol sales data.
One restaurant group at the Houston Hobby airport sold more alcohol than anywhere else in all of Houston last month ” by a long shot.”
More alcohol was sold from the three Pappas restaurants inside Hobby Airport’s central concourse than anywhere else in Houston for the entirety of June – and it’s by a long shot.
Credit: Houston Airport Systems
Pappasito’s, Pappadeaux and Pappas Burger all have common ownership and report their alcohol sales together. Just these restaurants at Hobby airport, the smaller of the two Houston airports, had approximately $1 million in alcohol sales in June. The number two location, a bar in Houston, generated $620,898 in alcohol sales.
Southwest extended 2020 and 2021-expiring free drink coupons until December 31, 2021 – but offer no ability to use them.
Pappas’ won’t take the free drink coupons, but they’ll let passengers get ready for flight.
My favorite airport restaurant, Pappadeaux. The best part about connecting in DFW- didn’t know they are also at Hobby. The crawfish étouffée is sublime.
You might want to compare that to a pre-pandemic number. The same airport restaurant group did $982k in June 2019*, so it has gone up barely 1% in 2 years. While June passenger counts for the airport probably won’t be out for another 1-2 weeks, they likely will be down less than 10% of June 2019’s number.
They will almost certainly have over 1 million passengers in June 2021 when they report the counts. Even discounting half as arriving passengers who most likely aren’t having a beverage (or are connecting and will again be a departing passenger), that is an average of less than $2 spent on alcohol per departing passenger and within similar levels to 2 years ago.
Can you please elaborate on why passengers are pre-gaming at an alarming rate when the data does not appear to be showing that?
*I’d link, but comment would likely get filtered. The number is in the Texas government dataset for ‘Mixed Beverage Gross Receipts’ (and does include beer/wine in there)
Regardless of how big of an increase in alcohol sales this represents, this just highlights how lucrative airport contracts are, esp. when a single company is awarded multiple contracts in the same airport. People didn’t buy just alcohol.
And, Southwest scheduled 14% less seats at HOU in June 2021 compared to 2 years earlier.
The bigger question is whether airlines that are continuing to serve alcohol are seeing any more passenger problems than those that suspended them during the mask mandate – and so far the answer appears to be that there is no difference.
Southwest Airlines and Spirit Airlines passengers have skilluflly learned to avoid hangovers by staying drunk while flying. A sloshed permabuzz brain will help you enjoy your flight on these airlines.
Yes, because many people have anxiety when flying and not everyone has Xanax… and even then you need to top it off!
Southwest has always had a special relationship with alcohol….even among their flight crews.
They are the only airline to negotiate with layover hotels a special rate to support alcohol consumption by their flight crews. It’s called the “3 2 1″…it’s for SWA crews and it’s available at the bar and restaurant of the layover hotel.
Cocktails for having a SWA ID is $3….Wine $2…..Beer $1
This was true a few years ago when I was woking, have to wonder if they still do this….seems pretty archaic to me.
Had to look up what “pre-gaming” meant. I’d suggest not using colloquial expressions that can be obscure.
#Drrichard
I had to look up, “colloquial!”
I’ll admit I don’t drink near as much as I did in my younger days but enjoy a good Scotch on a flight or a wine with dinner, esp in biz class it is hard to turn down the flowing drinks but seeing how some passengers behave in ALL classes of travel, I could actually see all airlines wanting to discontinue alcohol sales permanently. @KenA, I’ve noticed that drunks can be obnoxious douchebags no matter how much $ they spend for their tickets.
I would LOVE to see the stats on just what it cost to turn one flight around/cancel/sort out the mess caused by one or two drunks fighting mid-air, attacking flight crew bc they refuse to serve, etc. I wonder what percentage of annual revenue is generated by alcohol sales vs the additional costs associated with security, turning around, rebooking, hotels, meals and other related fees caused by alcohol abuse/misuse and general foolery.
Just a few minutes on Youtube and you can see tons of videos from this kind of mess.
#drrichard
Your point is on fleek.