Airports, Airlines, Aviation

Airport food trucks and mobile dining


Foodies of all shapes and sizes will enjoy this week’s tripchi airport app blog on airport food trucks and other forms of airport mobile dining. Spurred to research this topic by the recent HMS Host Press Release on airport food trucks, we’ll take a look at the best airport dining options that are in a mobile format.

Airport food trucks - courtesy of HMS Host
Airport food trucks – courtesy of HMS Host

The food truck craze that swept North America in the last 10 years is also now taking hold in the aviation industry. Thanks to forward thinking airport restaurateurs like HMS Host, property management companies, and airport authorities too, an airport dining revolution is taking place right in front of our eyes.

The HMS Host press release highlighted why airport food trucks/mobile dining ventures are attractive to the airport restaurateur. The logic goes like this: if an airport restaurateur can distribute airport food trucks strategically throughout all gates, and not just in the concourse hub/mall areas, more people will find accessible food options and spend more money. The other attractive selling point to the business owner is the ability to be mobile and move from gate to gate, possible as flights arrive and people get off the plane feeling hungry (this idea of course may not be approved by the airport authority and therefore may not be viable).

Besides just the obvious short-term profit-driven reasons why airport food trucks are a good idea, companies like HMS Host also see these channels of food delivery the key to a broader innovation strategy. For HMS Host, that includes mobile app integration with Grab and Kallpod, including airport delivery services. Kudos to Grab to doing what tripchi could not do (point of sale integration).

As such, HMS Host has been on the forefront of innovation around the concept of airport food trucks. In fact, the company recently launched several airport food trucks and carts.

  • E Komo Mai Wagon at Honolulu International Airport
  • Wiki Wiki Wagon at Maui International Airport

Both of these mobile dining options offer locally oriented specialties fused nicely with global tastes. You can check out some Hawaiian BBQ chicken tacos with crunchy slaw as well as other tasty snacks.

Wiki Wiki HNL - airport food trucks example - courtesy of HMS Host
Wiki Wiki HNL – airport food trucks example – courtesy of HMS Host

Here’s a few more airport food trucks that we like:

  • Chicago O’Hare’s Mobile Ala Cart
  • Memphis International Airport’s Food Cycle. This option is mobile to the extreme because it actually delivers food to travelers at their gates.
  • Tampa International Airport’s food truck initiative in the cell-phone waiting lot. This airport program started in 2012, and the schedule for which airport food trucks will be by when are located on the Tampa airport Facebook page.
  •  San Francisco International Airport’s allows three airport food trucks outside of Terminal 1 every Thursday. Don’t forget that tripchi covers SFO in the tripchi airport app.
  • Long Beach Airport’s “Truck’n Tuesday” has a different group of airport food trucks every week.
  • Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport’s daily food cart serves hots dogs and bratwurst.
  • Austin-Bergstrom International Airport’s Twist of Spice food trailer has been serving wraps, paninis and Mexican food in the cellphone lot since 2013. tripchi covers SFO in the tripchi airport app.

Some airport officials at SFO commented that they only make $300/month with an airport food trucks operation, and that the primary driver to airport food truck introduction was to improve the passenger experience. Whatever the motive, profit #paxex improvement, tripchi is glad this trend is taking airports by storm. Someday soon, airport delivery services will be ubiquitous – airport food trucks are the first step towards that inevitability.


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