It’s nearly goes without saying: a sandwich or a bagel at an airport is just going to cost more than it does outside an airport. And while fliers stuck waiting near their gate are a captive audience, that’s only part of the reason airport menus tend to be on the pricier side.
“The cost of running a business in the airport is actually really high,” said Lora Kelley, an associate editor at The Atlantic who wrote about airport prices. “The cost of retail space is high. Vendors may need to pay for things like special badges for their employees or transportation to the airport and parking.”
Kelley spoke with “Marketplace” host Kristin Schwab about her story; the following is an edited transcript of their conversation.
Kristin Schwab: I’ve always assumed airport food is expensive because the airport is kind of like a baseball stadium. How much truth is there to that?
Lora Kelley: Yeah, it’s a great question because that certainly is one part of this. People at the airport are bored. They’re often sort of in this transitional moment of leaving whatever their real life is and going on a work trip or on a vacation or to see family. So the airport definitely is a space where people are a captive audience, and so that’s part of why things cost so much. But that’s, I found out in my reporting of this story, not really the only or the main reason that airport food is so expensive.
Schwab: Yeah. So what are those other reasons?
Kelley: So it turns out that the cost of running a business in the airport is actually really high. The cost of retail space is high. Vendors may need to pay for things like special badges for their employees or transportation to the airport and parking. Getting food through its version of airport security can be pricey, and vendors have to bring food in pretty frequently, in part because there’s pretty limited storage space in airports.
Schwab: You write about how this was sort of exacerbated by 9/11. Tell me more about that.
Kelley: Yeah, so this was a really interesting insight that an airport historian shared with me. So she explained that the necessity of security measures meant that it became more expensive to hire employees. And also, the way that people approach their time in the airport also really changed. Sometimes before 9/11, people who weren’t even flying could just sort of go to the airport to hang out, go to restaurants, wait for people, even just watch the planes. And that’s something that obviously shifted in the way people spend time at the airport in the years since.
Schwab: Yeah, and in your story, you talk about even going back before 9/11, the airport has always kind of been an expensive place.
Kelley: Yeah, that was such an interesting insight from this airport historian that I spoke to. She was telling me that basically into the 1970s, a lot of the people who were flying were really affluent, and so they weren’t actually all that sensitive to prices. And I should say there are still some parts about the flying experience that, you know, certainly try to appeal to more affluent fliers. There are fancier restaurants, which do come with heftier price tags. But one thing that a lot of fliers, including myself, have also probably encountered is that sometimes restaurants that are actually not all that upscale are charging upscale prices. So, in general, airport restaurants are supposed to charge what’s called street or street-plus pricing. So that typically caps prices at about 10% or more than outside establishments, but restaurants sometimes take a little bit of leeway when they consider what street pricing is.
Schwab: So for consumers, is there any way around all these high prices?
Kelley: Yeah, so the unfortunate and maybe sort of obvious and disappointing answer that I found in my research is not really. Some experts that I spoke with advised that if you want to save money when traveling, you should probably just try to avoid buying airport food to begin with. I know that for me, it can feel tempting to, you know, buy a drink at the gate and treat myself when I’m starting a trip. But that is a little bit of a potential money suck for a lot of people.
Schwab: Yeah, what kind of airport traveler are you? Are you a sandwich packer?
Kelley: You know, on my best days I am a sandwich packer. I try to bring snacks along with me. But I do think there is something about being in the airport that leads to sort of a warped logic. I do find myself making choices and making perhaps slightly unwise financial choices that are different from those that I would on an average day.
Schwab: Yeah, I tend to use the airport as an excuse to eat fast food. That’s where I fall.
Kelley: Fair enough. I feel that.
