Like almost everything else in life, airports seek to earn money. Whilst not always run for profit (though many are), running an airport is not cheap and operators seek to offset this cost by bringing in money from the airport itself.
Unlike other types of businesses that have only a couple of income streams, airports usually have several income streams that can be put into two categories: aeronautical revenue and non-aeronautical revenue.
Landing Fees
Passenger Service Fees
Hangar Fees
Parking Fees
Advertising
Thanks to post-9/11 laws dictating that you must arrive to the airport several hours before your flight departs, most passengers end up spending these several hours in the airport terminal waiting for their flight to depart.
Often flush with cash, tired and sometimes even jetlagged, passengers are a prime target for advertising your product or service, especially if it can be useful to travelers and bought at a shop or stall within the airport.
And airports know this. That’s why they have a series of ads rolling intermittently whenever the flight information display system (the board with all the flights listed on that tells you what your gate is) updates itself.
They know you’ll look at the board to find what gate number you need to go to, or just to see how much longer you have to wait before your flight can even think about boarding. And with all your free time, you might just go and purchase whatever the ad is advertising.
Other areas that airports sell advertising space on besides the flight information display system (FIDS) include: In the baggage claim area, on the airport shuttle, on banners above the check-in desk and on large boards (called spectaculars) on walkways.
Though it will depend on what type of airport you advertise – as a major international airport like JFK or Heathrow will charge much more than a small regional airport will – it costs an average of $10,835 for a four-week ad run!
Multiply that by the two or so dozen different ads running simultaneously at any one time, and you can see how advertising is one of the single-largest sources of revenue for airports.
Duty Free
Known for their tax-free sales
Commercial
Aside from a variety of duty free stores, airports also contain a variety of other places to spend your money, chiefly in the form of restaurants and hotels.
Much like duty free stores, airports don’t usually own the restaurants or cafes that operate on its grounds, with them instead being operated by a franchisee or the company’s head office.
If the airport is large enough, it may have one or several hotels for tired crews and passengers alike. Depending on the airport, this may be physically attached to the airport building itself or a freestanding structure located on the airport’s grounds.
To earn money, airports typically charge rent, have some form of profit-sharing agreement or a mixture of the two.
As the amount of rent airports charge and the details of the profit-sharing agreements are confidential and vary from airport to airport, it’s difficult to say how much airports make from this, though it’s thought to be as much as 20% according to some experts.
Office Fees
Airshows
Whilst by no means all airports host airshows, a significant minority do and almost all airports profit from them directly or indirectly.
For the airports that host them, though they lose out on revenue from the flights that would’ve occurred during the period of time the airshow takes place (and the passengers that would fly on them), they gain far more.
To host the event, airports (or the organizer if both are unrelated) charge entry fees to those wanting to attend the airshow and a fee to the aircraft that attend based on what they’ll do; static display aircraft generally pay less than flight display aircraft.
Likewise, aviation-related companies can pay for a popup stand which they can use to promote their company, either to potential customers or as a recruiting drive (delivering a sort of “Get involved in aviation and become a [enter aviation job here] like me!” message).
Independent vendors, such as burger vans, milkshake stands and merchandise sellers, are also invited and pay the airport rent for the rights to operate for the duration of the airshow.
Most airshows also produce official merchandise such as shirts, stickers, hats etc. which are sold by “official” vendors at several stores (usually popup stalls of some kind) across the airfield during the airshow.
Media Appearances
As aviation becomes increasingly more vital to everyday life, popular media has begun to include airport scenes more and more.
In many of these scenes, characters are depicted in a specific airport or terminal, such as Heathrow’s Terminal 5 or JFK. Due to security reasons, as well as the disruption this would cause, these scenes are never filmed in the airport building itself.
That does not, however, mean that they’re always filmed at a studio in Hollywood. In many cases, smaller airports (typically regional airports) rent out hangar space for film crews to build the sets for a more authentic feel.
This also doubles as an easy way to get extras, as both airport employees and bored passengers in the terminal can be hired for filming with minimal disruption to the airport itself.
For smaller airports, such as general aviation airports or airports that are little more than a grass runway, they can easily be closed for a few days whilst a general aviation scene is filmed.
Depending on how much disruption is caused, the airport itself, and the size of the project, film studios can pay as little as $10,000 for a small scale project with minimal disruption, up to several days’ revenue if the airport requires closing.
Featured image courtesy of Curt Smith via Flickr.