I just paid 4.10 euros ($5.90) for half a focaccia sandwich and a cup of coffee near the gate to the airplane for the second flight of my trip.
The price was outrageous, and the sandwich was barely mediocre. But given the value of my time, plus the hassle of going through security again, it wasn’t sensible for me to go to the main part of the airport to grab breakfast.
My demand is quite inelastic, and the near monopolist at this smaller airport is taking advantage of that. I know that the price in the main part of the airport is lower for the same quality food, and the average quality is better too. I wonder: is this generally true?
The only exception I’ve ever encountered to this rule is the superb Wolfgang Puck restaurant inside security in the American Airlines terminal at O’Hare Airport.
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O’Hare has great food options in general. The TF Green airport in Providence, RI also has a few nice places inside security and prices are pretty reasonable.
Personally I’ve always wondered why San Francisco’s airport inside security restaurants are so much better than Atlanta’s. (For example, Terminal 1 in SF has Perry’s, which has a great wasabi tuna sandwich).
Perhaps it’s similar to why SF is a walking city and Atlanta is a driving one. Atlanta was rebuilt after cars were common, so it was arranged for drivers. I believe SF started out with just one terminal and then kept expanding in a haphazard manner so there is no central dining area. Atlanta’s airport was arranged from the beginning to be a large airport and has a central area and tram to take you to the different terminals. More incentive for the good restaurants to stay in that central area to get more foot traffic, where as there really isn’t that option in SF.
yay for price discrimination!
I fly a lot, and in general, I agree with you that airport food is almost always as bad as you say, especially near the gates. My home airport is Portland, Oregon – they are a great exception to this awful rule. 3 (or is it 4) brewpub restaurants – 3 of them local brewpubs, and outlets of other local restaurants all near the gates, and a walkway between concourses inside of security so you can examine all the options.
It seems that the city has a lot to do with the quality of the airport food. In Austin, the city is pretty picky about granting permits to set up shop. Almost all of the places to eat inside security are local restaurants. The fare is everything from local barbecue to pizza and not a McDonalds in sight. The prices are pretty high, but at least the food is good!
With few exceptions (like SFO mentioned above), you should stick with branded fast food in airports. If you hadn’t had a focaccia from that place before or otherwise knew it to be exceptional, getting a known quantity is much safer than rolling the dice when you don’t have time to recover from a bad meal.
What drives me nuts are the places (like, well, focaccia vendors…) who go on about the “freshness” of their food. In most cases, airport customers are in a hurry almost by definition; if freshness was a concern, we wouldn’t be eating at the airport.
Anyone notice how the price of beverages increased since the ban on liquids? I finally got fed up and now bring an empty water bottle and fill it up at a drinking fountain after I go through security (If I remember)
SFO has done a complete overhaul of its food options since 2000. It used to be pretty dreadful in some terminals.
There are good choice pre-security in the international terminal and near the gates for Alaska/Southwest/Continental in terminal 1, and good choice post-security in all the terminals. Many operators were worried when rules changed after 9/11 because they couldn’t have knives inside security for a while.