“We’re building an airport for tomorrow, not yesterday,” says Maryann Ferenc, who is part of a team that landed a food-and-beverage concessions contract at Tampa International Airport.
The TIA board recently finalized its sweeping Concessions Redevelopment Program, part of a $940 million facility expansion.
The airport of tomorrow relies heavily on homegrown restaurants and bars. That’s particularly true for TIA, whose exhaustive bid and selection process forged a brand mix that will be roughly half local and half national/international when it’s fully rolled out in 2017.
The days of major airports housing predominantly familiar chain restaurants are waning, say experts in the field.