AIRMALL USA will reconfigure the airside core of shops and restaurants at Pittsburgh International (PIT) and add seven new concession locations in response to a shift in passenger traffic. The newly revamped program, the start of which coincides with PIT’s 20th anniversary, is expected to be completed by the end of 2013.
The $10M upgrade will create a new retail core in the Center Core of the airport’s airside terminal, a move that is aimed at attracting some of the nation’s top brands. Jay Kruisselbrink, vice president of development for AIRMALL USA, says the company is currently in negotiations with new tenants but deals have not yet been signed.
Kruisselbrink says AIRMALL’s plan to reconfigure the airside core of shops and restaurants is directly related to a change in passenger traffic.
“We have the X – four concourses feeding off the center core,” Kruisselbrink says. “When we were a hub, the hubbing airline was over 70% of the traffic and 80% of it was hubbing. The A and B concourses had 80% of the traffic. Now its split up more evenly. We have 20% on A, 30% on B, 20% on C and 30% on D.”
“We didn’t transition from a hub to O&D overnight,” Kruisselbrink adds. “It took several years for the whole transition to take place.”
The reconfiguration allows AIRMALL to put more retail and food and beverage in front of passengers. “Every passenger entering the airside terminal will pass by this new retail core,” Kruisselbrink says. “Such an arrangement is engineered to generate greater sales. It also provides top brands with high-value real estate in the terminal.”
AIRMALL’s plan calls for the addition of seven units for a total of 74 shops, restaurants, bars and other retail establishments throughout the airport. Once the program is fully operational, AIRMALL expects the enhanced concessions will grow annual revenue by as much as 10 to 20 percent over current figures.
The changes over the next year will represent the most significant refurbishment of the concessions program since it began in 1992. AIRMALL says it will continue with this mall pricing guarantee in the new program.
The plan, which was recently approved by the Allegheny County Airport Authority board of directors, also comes with a contract extension for AIRMALL, which will now serve as the concessions developer at the airport through 2029.
