Skift Take
U.S. airports can be slow to innovate. Most are run by local governments, and they're risk-averse. It's good to see some airports trying to take chances. Let's see if more follow.
Like many haggard business travelers, PJ Mastracchio didn’t like waiting in line for 10 minutes in an airport terminal to buy a soggy sandwich or salad.
Unlike most other business travelers, Mastracchio wanted to create a solution. By late 2014, he had begun thinking about building a company, now called At Your Gate, that would deliver almost anything passengers wanted, with a courier picking up food or sundries and delivering to them to customers waiting at a gate.
It seemed like an obvious solution, given most passengers have little time, and are already accustomed to delivery from mobile apps like UberEats, Grubhub, Postmates and others. Airports, though, weren't sure.
"We talked to probably a 100 airports about this idea," Mastracchio said in an interview. "Ninety-nine of them said, 'it sounds like a great idea, go figure it out somewhere else."'
San Diego International was the one airport willing to try — and this was by design. The airport recently created an innovation lab to help and nurture companies like Mastracchio's, which otherwise would find it difficult, if not impossible, to enter the highly-regulated world of terminal concessions. In January, At Your Gate made its first delivery to an airport employee— a bottle of water, and hummus and pretzels. By April, it was delivering to passengers, including, on occasion, to passengers already seated on airplanes.
"What we wanted to be able to do is try and get solutions in quicker," said Rick Belliotti, San Diego International's director for innovation and small business development.
Most U.S. airports are public enterprises, operated by cities, states and counties, or boards appointed by politicians, and they're
