Retail Concessions of the Future Coming to BWI Airport

The Maryland Aviation Administration is seeking a long-term partner to manage and redevelop nearly 200K SF of leasable retail concession space at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, the busiest DC-area airport.

MAA has issued an RFP offering a 20-year contract to a partner who will take over the management of the concessions space at BWI and redevelop it with a futuristic design, a rebranded digital experience and amenities including “retailtainment.”

“The (MAA) aspires to upgrade and refocus the program to deploy the next generation of airport concessions development, offering the very best in design, retail, restaurants, passenger amenities, technology and customer service unlike any current or past retail concessions program,” the RFP stated.

“Our goal is to partner with retailers, restauranteurs, entrepreneurs and commercial developers with a vision to create an airport concessions program of the future,” Jo. A. Schneider, who heads MAA’s Office of Architecture, said in a video announcing the RFP.

MAA said the proposal that wins the 20-year contract must include a commitment to diversity and support for local economic development and small businesses. Ricky Smith, CEO of MAA, said in the video that the redevelopment of the concessions space at BWI would welcome local, small and minority-owned businesses seeking to grow in a new industry.

Located roughly equidistant from Washington and Baltimore, BWI has been the busiest airport in the region in recent years, drawing a record 27M passengers in 2019. BWI generates an estimated $9B in annual economic impact for the region, supporting about 25,000 jobs, including more than 12,000 at the airport itself.

The previous operator of BWI’s concessions space, BAA, took over in 2004 and configured the retail footprint into a mall type of experience. The retail footprint has doubled in size at BWI as air passenger traffic surged at the airport, which now has more traffic than the combined total of the other two major airports in the region.

MAA’s RFP for the retail makeover at BWI comes on the heels of a bullish statement from the head of the world’s biggest airline trade organization on the global recovery in air passenger traffic.

Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association, told Reuters last month that the recovery in air passenger traffic has been accelerating and could return to pre-pandemic levels in 2023, a year earlier than previously forecast. 

Walsh said the continued easing of Covid-related restrictions by governments around the world has unleashed pent-up demand for travel. The IATA head said high fuel prices and labor shortages have caused a 10% increase in air fares, but he said this inflationary headwind has—so far—not slowed down the surge in air passenger traffic.

“I don’t think we should be distracted from the fact that we are seeing a strong recovery and I think that recovery will gather momentum as we go through the rest of this year into 2023,” Walsh told Reuters.