Airport Economics

During my 11-day vacation stretch, I was in 4 airports: Orlando and Portland (the two ends of the trip), and Salt Lake City and Dallas-Ft. Worth to change planes in both directions.

The mid-point stops both required me to seek out food for lunch, all flights being conveniently timed to avoid feeding the passengers anything much beyond pretzels. In Dallas, this wasn't too difficult, as it was local lunch-time, and the airport posted a convenient map showing where all the concessionaires were (by name) in the terminal. Cheap (well, airport-priced) lunch food was easy to locate.

In Salt Lake, I was changing planes at about 10 am local time (which was, however, 12 noon Eastern — and therefore, hungry stomach — time). The only signage simply said, "food." Fortunately, "food" meant "Burger King," known on the outside as a place where you can get burgers for breakfast — and the airport location held true. While local travellers were getting Croissanwiches, all of us just passing through were able to get true lunch. It would have been wise if they had made this clear, in my opinion. Many people were hovering back from the line, and I overheard people asking each other, "Do you think they're serving lunch yet?"

At the trip-initiation airports, though, it just seems that the on-site businesses have not yet adapted to the new passenger demands of heightened-securtiy travel. My flight leaving Orlando departed at 7:30 am, meaning I was supposed to check in at 5:30 am — which took me less than 10 minutes (thanks to Delta's self-check-in kiosks). None of the retailers in the main terminal were open, and even Starbucks was closed (albeit for remodelling). The only operating business I found was Cinnabon. I passed through security in 15 minutes (and that was after choosing the line feeding to a single metal detector, as opposed to the other, which fed to three), and made it to my gate by 6 am. Thank goodness for my cell phone, which kept me occupied, as there was NOTHING ELSE TO DO.

It was a similar story in Portland. First, my airport-convenient hotel (and really, there is no other reason to stay there) had no one on the front desk to help me check out at 4:15 in the morning. They hadn't even charged my card for the room yet. (I was relieved to find that they had already put out the pastries and fresh fruit on the Continental Breakfast bar, which was not scheduled to open until 6.) At the airport, there was no one to help check in the 7 or so drivers attempting to return rental cars to National. Once inside the terminal, the only businesses operating in the "Oregon Market" shopping area were Coffee People ("Good Coffee—No Backtalk") and Wendy's — the same two businesses operating on the "other" side of security.

Unfortunately, it seems that the principles of capitalism and a free-market economy are at odds with providing services to keep the travelling public satisfied. Restricting flight concourses to only ticketed passengers has so reduced foot traffic that service-oriented businesses can not justify sustainable operations on that side of the "fence." (In Orlando, Disney closed a pair of shops ain an airside terminal, to be replaced by a new megastore in the airport lobby.) However, as an individual, you are encouraged to pass through security "as soon as possible" to ensure you are at your gate with sufficient time to board the plane.^* So in both cases, I was on the secure side more than an hour before boarding the plane, with only a single coffee stand and a single fast-food operator open. (At least at Portland, my much-revered Powell's Books opened their new gate-side shop a half hour before boarding to help pass the time.) I know airports and airlines have struggled financially in the past two years, but as a traveller I wish I didn't have to do quite so much to pre-prepare to travel. I shouldn't have to go out the night before to get additional food and reading material to entertain myself before I even board the plane. It would make the start and ends of a flight-based trip far more enjoyable if a variety of services were somehow kept open purely as services at any hours when the travelling public were in wait.

^* It is worth noting that although I cooled my heels gateside in Portland for just over an hour, a woman ran up just as we were boarding, breathless and just this side of panicked, saying that the line through security was stretching to the other end of the terminal building. So being early did pay off, in some fashion. Perhaps the backup was in part caused by the overzealous TSA agent who insisted I remove my simple leather-band watch and said I was "taking a risk" by not removing my belt before going through the metal detector. I do not wear a belt buckle the size of a license plate. Neither of these things set off concern or alarms at Orlando, nor did they "beep" in Portland, but his response was, "well, they must not have the new machines where you're from."