Why Are Airport Food and Drinks So Expensive?

Global Bazaar nutrient tribunal wrong Newark Liberty International Airport. Credit: Famartin / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

Travelers cognize airdrome food and drinks are expensive, but reporting shows immoderate items are priced astatine much than treble their thoroughfare cost—with a cocoa barroom marked up by 120 percent and a burger priced 46 percent higher than its downtown equivalent, according to Business Insider’s investigation of airdrome terminal menus and in-person reviews. The reasons are structural: constricted competition, higher operating costs, and pricing policies acceptable by airdrome authorities.

Airports began treating rider terminals arsenic sources of gross successful the mid-20th century, adding restaurants and amenities to pull some travelers and locals. The deregulation of airlines successful 1978 brought cheaper fares and galore much fliers, portion longer layovers successful the 1980s created a caller opportunity—to crook terminals into buying malls.

Pittsburgh’s aboriginal 1990s translation into an “air mall” utilized a thoroughfare pricing model, wherever goods wrong the terminal were sold astatine the aforesaid terms arsenic outside, and the airdrome reported important gross maturation without expanding prices.

The emergence and autumn of thoroughfare pricing

That exemplary has mostly fixed mode to “street pricing plus,” nether which airports let concessionaires to complaint the mean extracurricular terms positive an further 10 to 15 percent.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates LaGuardia Airport, requires vendors to acceptable prices based connected the mean of comparable items extracurricular the airport and adhd up to 15 percent, the authorization said. Officials besides described 15 percent arsenic a tenable allowance for higher concession costs.

However, enforcement is inconsistent. Business Insider reported that the fourteen-dollar cocoa barroom cited astatine LaGuardia was selling for little successful adjacent stores, and the Port Authority did not bespeak it would alteration the listing.

At Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport, officials told Business Insider in August 2025 that they usage thoroughfare pricing positive 10 percent. Yet investigators recovered a Hudson News determination charging sixty-nine percent much than a adjacent Walgreens, a Chick-fil-A repast priced much than sixteen percent higher, and a yogurt marked up eighty-four percent.

Food tribunal successful the Sea-Tac Airport. Credit: John Boren / Flickr / CC BY-NC 2.0

The Metropolitan Airports Commission said it audits prices doubly a twelvemonth oregon arsenic needed but declined to explicate the disparities.

Operators and airports constituent to the importantly higher costs of doing concern wrong terminals: information screenings for unit and deliveries, operation expenses that tin tally 30 to forty percent higher than comparable thoroughfare projects, longer operating hours, and section wage regulations. Concessionaires besides wage a information of their income arsenic rent—typically betwixt six and 20 percent, astir often astir 10 to sixteen percent.

What drives airdrome concern costs up, making nutrient and drinks truthful expensive?

Competition wrong terminals is limited. Six ample corporations tally the bulk of US airdrome nutrient and retail—names travelers whitethorn not recognize—operating thousands of locations worldwide. In galore terminals, aggregate branded outlets are operated by the aforesaid genitor company, reducing existent prime for captive passengers.

Mergers person consolidated the industry, and immoderate ample operators person pushed airports to rise oregon region pricing caps; Phoenix abandoned thoroughfare pricing successful 2019 aft concessions companies requested higher limits, and astir items astatine Los Angeles International mislaid their headdress successful 2025.

Dwell clip and rider spending

Airports besides nett erstwhile passengers dwell longer. Security changes aft 2001 accrued hold times, and manufacture figures amusement astir 63 percent of passengers beyond information marque purchases.

US airports present deduce astir fractional their gross from non-aeronautical sources, and food-and-beverage gross successful 2024 was much than treble what it was successful 2010, according to manufacture reporting.

A fewer outliers clasp strict thoroughfare pricing. Portland International enforces nary markup and reports higher walk per rider than the nationalist average, but airdrome officials accidental reversing pricing models elsewhere is unlikely.

In May 2025, members of Congress asked the Federal Trade Commission to analyse concession prices astatine airports and stadiums, noting that travelers look utmost markups with fewer options. Buying snacks earlier information remains the easiest mode for consumers to debar the premium.