When you are at the airport lounge waiting to board your flight, you must have come across different stalls that serve varied cuisine in the airport. And the moment you get there to buy your favourite meal, you surely must have been surprised at the price of it. There is no doubt that the food served within the airport is of top-notch quality but there is no argument to this either, that they come at an equally expensive price. But have you ever wondered why airport food is so expensive? Well, there are quite a few reasons for this. So, before you make your flight ticket booking to the next destination, have a look at the below points that will clear your confusion about why airport meals are costly. Make sure to book your flight ticket from https://intermiles.com/flights for a seamless experience.
Renting a space in the airport is expensive
Renting a space in the airport, charges a hefty amount for food stalls to be stationed there. The International airports are more expensive and charge a double amount to open a food stall for passengers in the airport lounges. Also, after renting the space, the entrepreneurs of these food chains are not permitted any other space in the lounge other than their allocated space to run their businesses. Preferably, it is required for the vendors to function within the designated space in the airport. Owing to the high rental fees, commissions and other miscellaneous changes required to pay, these businessmen sell their food items at a higher rate to make a profit. Besides, if one food stall in the airport lowers its selling price, then people will, for obvious reasons, crowd that place. So, to avoid a monopoly kind of business, you will find that almost all the unique food items in the airport are expensive for the customers. Even bottled water will be labelled with a higher price in the airport lounge.
Delivery charges
If there is a coffee shop outside the airport, it is easy for the vendors to serve the raw materials to the restaurants without any fuss. However, when it comes to food stalls within the airport, the vendors are checked and scanned every time they come to deliver. The vendors also have to pay a substantial amount of parking charges along with security checks and verification before delivering the items to the store in the airport. These factors lead to the labelling of higher prices in the refreshment items. As the suppliers charge a higher price to the restaurants and cafes at the airport, it becomes necessary for the food stores to raise the cost of their items. Also, there is a lot of wastage associated with airport food. The restaurant needs to have stock of their food items as it is not feasible to order raw materials whenever they exhaust their stock. They require to have enough supplies in their store to smoothly run their business as last-moment deliveries are not possible. All these factors culminate in high charges of the meals considering the logistical and administrative costs. Hence, you will find expensive food costs in these restaurants where deliveries are sometimes an annoying job.
Insufficient Storage Spaces
As the rent in the airport is high, the space for the restaurants and cafes is limited and not always adequate. For this reason, these eateries have to rent another place to stock and store their items. However, the demand for spaces in the airport lounge is high and is difficult to come across. If anyhow a space is available, the planning and arrangement required to move the stored items from the storage place to the eatery are quite expensive and include repeated security checks. The total process of packaging the items, delivering them to the allocated eatery and multiple verifications at the airport counters, makes the whole procedure hectic and time-consuming. These added monetary requirements is another reason for the food purchased from the restaurants in the airport being pricey. Also, there is the extra cost to employ workers to shift commodities daily from the storage space to the outlet in the airport.
Trained Employees
The outlets require a large number of efficient and trained employees for the smooth running of the business within the airport. The employees in the airport are required to pass the identity verification every day at the airport gates. It requires training and preparation by the employees. Paying and training the workers are extra costs that the restaurants have to bear. Also, famous food brands of restaurants and cafes charge more to promote their names. Besides, before selling an item to the customer, employees need to do some additional pre-work such as assembling the burgers and the sandwiches that requires prowess and expertise. It gets obvious for the food stalls to increase the cost of their items due to all the labour.
So, now that you know why the food items in the airport are high-priced, have a complete meal before reaching the airport or get ready to pay high bills for your lunch or dinner.
