Coronavirus Pandemic: Airports Are Finding New Ways to Make Money - Bloomberg

Coronavirus Pandemic: Airports Are Finding New Ways to Make Money - Bloomberg:

In surveys of the world’s best airports, Singapore’s Changi regularly ranks near the top. A leader among utilitarian transportation hubs that have been transformed into upscale shopping destinations, Changi Airport in 2019 added Jewel, a futuristic play land with 1.5 million square feet of stores and attractions including a rainforest, hedge maze, and the world’s highest indoor waterfall. And the government had planned this year to begin selecting contractors to work on a huge fifth terminal to boost annual capacity 55%, to 140 million passengers.

Then came Covid-19. Traffic at the airport—long a preferred hub for globe-girdling business travelers—fell more than 99% in April, May, and June vs. a year earlier. Changi is hunkering down, mothballing two of its four terminals and delaying plans to build the additional one.

 At airports the world over, the pandemic has wrecked a business model that relies on a steady influx of airlines and their free-spending passengers. So operators stuck with lifeless buildings are trying to dream up fresh ways to generate income. Changi is encouraging Singaporeans who aren’t traveling to shop tax-free at the airport’s struggling retailers. It’s also selling three-month admission packages to Jewel’s activity area. For other airports, new ways to make money include turning parking lots into drive-in movie theaters or unused land into renewable energy farms. “What Covid-19 has taught airports is they need to diversify their revenue sources,” says Max Hirsh, research fellow at the University of Hong Kong and managing director of Airport City Academy, which offers airport-related executive training courses. “Airports are going to have to figure out different ways to make money.”