Airports and airport concessionaires are becoming more creative in meeting customer needs for foodservice, building foodservice outlets closer to, or even in the midst of, passenger gates, and installing elaborate ordering devices and food delivery services, reports USA Today.
Airport food/retail revenue, which accounts for about nine percent of airports' operating revenues, fell four percent in 2009 compared to 2008, a development blamed primarily on a poor economy, but also to passenger skittishness about venturing too far from boarding areas. One architect quoted by USA Today says 250 feet is the limit passengers generally want to stray from their gates because of concerns about missing boarding information.