Salt Lake airport food sales may soar even higher

Food sales at Salt Lake City International Airport are skyrocketing — and recent restructuring plans at Delta Air Lines are leaving terminal restaurants feeling even more bullish.

For the past five years, restaurants and other food merchants inside the airport have been turning tidy profits, despite the economic woes of the airline industry.

Data from the Salt Lake City Department of Airports show food sales at the airport have grown from $26.3 million in 2000 to $33.1 million last year — a 26 percent increase in five years.

Those increases are helping Salt Lake City's bottom line, since the Department of Airports earns a percentage of all food sales at the airport. The department's revenue from food sales grew by $750,000 from 2000 to 2004.

And food sellers expect even better business this year.

Two months ago, Delta, which accounts for some 80 percent of all commercial flights at the airport, began funneling more connecting flights into Salt Lake City.

Connecting flights now account for 41 percent of all flights into the airport. And with so many passengers on layover, many take the opportunity to get nourishment.

In addition, Delta announced this month it will no longer serve meals on most of its domestic flights. In fact, most airlines aren't serving meals anymore, so passengers are looking to airport restaurants to satisfy their hunger pangs.

"There really isn't any airline that is serving food anymore," said James Soares, manager of the airport's Squatters brew pub. "It's definitely been a positive change for airport concessions in general."

And while it's been doing great business leading up to this year, Squatters recently hired more staff to help with an expected influx of new customers who used to be routed to Delta's former hub in Dallas.

"When Delta made that big change and closed one of their hubs and redirected a lot of flights here, that was great for our business. That really helped us out," Soares said.

And the boon in food sales isn't limited to restaurants. Places that sell snacks also are doing well.

"There are a lot of food opportunities. (Delta's changes) will likely increase those opportunities," said Tom Crismon, who owns several small newsstand-like stores that also sell snacks. "Even in our stores, our per-passenger expenditures have gone up."

Department of Airports spokeswoman Barbara Gann said the rise of food sales can be attributed to several factors. For starters, there are more connecting flights, which in turn means more layovers and more people likely to grab a quick bite while waiting for their next flight.

There are also the effects of 9/11. Passengers now arrive earlier for flights and have longer "dwell time" where they are waiting in the terminal for flights. Many passengers use this down time to eat. And with airlines not serving meals on flights anymore, terminal restaurants are also adapting by offering passengers meals to go.

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E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com