Coming to an Airport near you… Food trucks?!
No one actually enjoys driving to an airport, and waiting around for your friends of family to arrive at the airport is even more of a drag. Following the lead from a bunch of other airports around the nation, Sea-Tac airport in Seattle today launched a pilot program to offer food trucks at the cell phone waiting lot for hungry travelers. The premise: if you can get some good food at the airport, maybe you’ll come get your friends and enjoy coming to the airport!
Following Success
Tampa was the first airport to start doing this in 2012 and soon after other airports around the US took notice. You can find food trucks in Tuscon, Austin, Cincinnati, Phoenix, Minneapolis, and a bunch more.
In Seattle the service is going to be twice a day, seven days a week. Stephanie Bowman, the Port of Seattle Comissioner, notes that:
“It’s a great way to take a bite out of your wait and enjoy some great food options you might not be aware of. This is another opportunity to grow local, small business activity at the airport and improve the experience for users of the cellphone lot.â€
A Working Partnership
SeaTac is going to partner with the Washington State Food Trucks Association to give this a little more serious clout. They’re going to start with 5 rotating trucks and if it goes well, they can expand from there.
Lori Johnson, the director of the Food Trucks Association, said “I don’t see why we can’t build on the successes of other food truck programs at similar airports. Local food trucks offer a unique experience and are most often operated by small business owners passionate about sharing their culinary art with people in their community. Food trucks have really captured the public’s attention, largely due to the quality of their food and to the creativity they bring to their menu.â€
Want them in your town?
It’s only a three month trial for now in Seatac, but they were going off of the success of other towns across the USA. Email or call your Port Authority and tell them that you’d like to see something like this in your town too. Maybe now our friends could be convinced to come get us at the airport sometime.
October 9, 2017
Ok, maybe the food truck craze has reached a “jump the shark” moment when this happens? It does make sense to give cell-phone-lot people something to do… and a place to spend their money. We’ll see if more airports pick up this trend.