John Wayne Airport plans more places to eat after it finds travelers bored with choices

If you travel often, you’ve likely noticed most U.S. airports have a few things in common: McDonald’s, Starbucks, Hudson News and other seemingly ubiquitous chains.

At John Wayne Airport, those familiar brands won’t necessarily go away, but airport officials plan to give passengers new and different choices in where to eat, drink and shop in between flights through a multi-year overhaul of its concessions, likely starting with a first phase done by June 2020. Some of the new offerings could include the chefs and flavors of Orange County’s restaurant scene.

“Passengers are all different. They’re looking for different things,” said Dave Pfeiffer, John Wayne’s deputy director of airport business development. “I think in every airport, it is a balance of national brands and local brands and regional brands.”

A 2017 survey found travelers using John Wayne Airport were becoming less satisfied with its dining and retail choices, and more food options was a frequent request, Orange County Supervisor Michelle Steel wrote in an email. Steel’s district includes the airport, and supervisors voted this week to seek proposals for new restaurants and stores.

The airport’s three terminals – currently home to 23 food and drink sellers and 15 retail vendors – won’t be expanded, but instead will make use of under-utilized waiting areas now full of nondescript seating and outlets to charge devices.

With gate-adjacent dining, more high-end goods and services and a focus on local flavors and businesses, John Wayne will be following industry trends.

A year ago, airports didn’t see passenger comfort and choice as a key part of their mission, so they’d contract with a few larger companies that could do it all, said Michael Levine, CEO of Tastes on the Fly. His company has brought specialty and locally based dining to airports in San Francisco, Boston, New York City and Denver.

Now that the industry has realized the money-making potential of unique offerings, “I think everybody is moving toward more authentic operations,” Levine said.

Airport staff have encouraged local businesses to put in bids, and they’re likely to get a good response, Orange County Restaurant Association President Pam Waitt said.

A space at John Wayne Airport is “one of the first restaurants you see when you land,” she said – and with between 700,000 and 1 million passengers a month passing through, that can help build a following.

The concessions overhaul is expected to last through 2021 and could replace some existing vendors, though they’ll be welcome to submit bids, officials said. The airport will spend money up front to put in plumbing, wiring and other improvements for the new spaces, but Pfeiffer said those costs would be recouped through leases.

Though Pfeiffer said the focus of the first phase will be to give travelers a better experience, the changes planned for John Wayne are expected to increase revenue.

A 2018 survey of 86 North American airports showed gross revenue from concessions (including gifts and duty-free goods) rose 40 percent from 2012 to 2017, and food and drinks made up nearly 60 percent of that revenue, according to industry publication Airport Experience Factbook Insights.

But even as airport dining goes artisanal and upscale, Levine said travelers shouldn’t worry that well-known vendors will disappear.

While San Francisco International Airport’s boutique offerings have been popular, he said after it filled a new terminal with individual restaurant operators in 2000, “The No. 2 question that passengers asked, after ‘Where is the restroom,’ was ‘Is there a Starbucks here,’ and the next question was ‘Where’s the McDonald’s?’”