Centerlines - January 2008 - (Page 20)

PACIFIC POWERHOUSE S Seattle-Tacoma wins Griesbach Award of Excellence for its new concessions program BY REVENUE “WE have created a Pacific Northwest ‘sense of place’ by blending nationally recognized food/beverage and retail stores with shops and restaurants that are iconic of the Seattle region.” eattle, known to many for its $5 lattes and hard-living rock bands, has a new claim to fame that can be more universally appreciated—some of the best airport concessions on the continent. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was honored with the Griesbach Award of Excellence at the Richard A. Griesbach Excellence in Airport Concessions contest, as announced Nov. 6 in Chicago by Airports Council International-North America during their Airport Concessions Conference. Winning the first-ever individual honor of Concession Person of the Year was Susan Stiene, Director, Service Quality and Development at Vancouver International Airport Authority. Stiene has guided Vancouver’s transformation into an innovative, customer-focused and financially aware program. Now in her eighth year, Stiene furthered partnerships with tenants through “field trips” M IC H A E L S E N E C A L to learn best practices at other airports, developed a no-cost training program for tenants and proactively addressed labor shortages through a retail career preparation course for local high-school students. Sales of food, beverage, retail and services at Vancouver have increased 21 percent under Steine’s leadership. For Seattle-Tacoma, the Award of Excellence is further evidence that the $126 million investment in its Pacific Marketplace was money well spent. As part of its 240,000-square-foot expansion project from August 2002 to May 2005, Seattle-Tacoma added 11 restaurants and nine retail shops to its central terminal, providing 600 new jobs and pushing the airport’s gross revenue from concessions in 2006 to about $155 million, a 19 percent increase over 2005. “We are honored to be recognized for the vision and vitality of the design of the Pacific Marketplace,” said Mark Reis, the airport’s managing director. “The offering of a world-class dining and shopping experience has been a tremendous positive for travelers. This national recognition of our innovative service makes us proud that our airport is the original home for a concept that will clearly expand to airports across the country.” Seattle-Tacoma was the big winner — Mark Reis, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s at this year’s Concessions Conference managing director Awards luncheon, winning first place in the large-airport division in the categories of Best Food and Beverage Program and Best Specialty Retail Program. In addition, two of the airport’s concessionaires won individual concept awards for their operations. butterLONDON received second place for Best New Consumer Services Concept and Waji’s by Uwajimaya won second place for Best New Food and Beverage Concept. The contest received more 20 CENTERLINES | JANUARY 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Centerlines - January 2008

Contents President’s Message Canadian Airports Associates’ Corner Policy Center Regulatory Front On the Hill and On the Stump One on One: Dave Barger Revenue: The Concessions Awards Environment: O’Hare Expansion Passenger Focus: Houston Friendly Safety and Security: After Comair, What Next? Air Service Recruiting: Charleston’s Acquisition of AirTran On Management: Performance Benchmarking at DFW Now Underway Grand Opening Conference Previews and Reviews New Members Index of Advertisers/Advertiser.com Box Scores

Centerlines - January 2008

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