Nov. 8—Getting a meal at Sacramento International Airport is a dicey proposition even as passengers return in larger numbers.
Five airport food and drink concessions have permanently closed: Paesanos and La Taqueria in Terminal A, and Dos Coyotes, the Getaway Bar and Camden Foods in Terminal B. Other concessions are temporarily shut or have reduced hours. Even restaurants that remain open can have long waits.
Airport officials say concession operators can't find enough workers.
"Labor shortages are affecting the economy nationwide, and many of the most severe impacts are found in the hospitality and service sectors," Chris Wimsatt, deputy director of finance and administration for the Sacramento County Department of Airports, said in a statement.
The lack of food options comes as the number of travelers continues to increase at the airport. The days of empty airport corridors that followed the start of the pandemic in early 2020 are gone.
More than 460,000 passengers departed from Sacramento International Airport in September 2021. While travelers are still down 17.3% from the same month pre-pandemic in 2019, it's a big improvement from last year. There were many days in 2020 when passengers numbers were down by more than 65% from the previous year.
The labor shortage has affected all airports big and small across the country, part of a larger problem affecting non-airport restaurants, hotels and the tourism industry. The industry was hit hard by COVID-19 and hundreds of thousands of workers lost their jobs.
But now the workers are missing in action as restaurants, hotels and other establishments attempt to hire again.
"Now when I fly, I have no expectation of eating anything," said Paul Brown, the CEO of the Jackson Mississippi Airport Authority in an August audio forum sponsored by a concessions trade group. "I have no expectation of finding anything in any facility, even the biggest ones."
The lack of terminal food has been complicated by the lack of snack packs and sandwiches on most flights under four hours. Instead, a small cookie and pretzels are the standard fare.
Limited hours and closures at SMF
Airport food enticements start on the Sacramento airport's website. "Don't travel on an empty stomach. Grab a bite at one of the various enticing dining options," the SMF website reads. But then scrolling down a little is the COVID-19 disclaimer that hours of operation have been impacted due to COVID-19.
The situation is particularly severe at Terminal A, home to Delta, United and American, according to a Bee review of available food options last week.
Freshii's is the main quick-service food option there. That's because, in addition to the permanent closures of Paesanos and La Taqueria, Squeeze Burger has also temporarily shut its doors.
Many of the food and drink businesses have limited hours. Freshii's closes at noon on Thursday. As far as the morning coffee, Peet's closes at 11 a.m., and Starbucks at 1 p.m.
That leaves one full, sit-down restaurant, an airport version of midtown's Iron Horse Tavern, open during the day in Terminal A.
Last month, on heavily trafficked Columbus Day, every table was full at lunchtime and it took more than 40 minutes for food to be delivered from the kitchen. The restaurant closes at 6 p.m. despite more than ten flights departing after that hour at Terminal A.
Micaela Gonsalez Vivanco, a chef at Iron Horse, said she feels bad that she can't get orders out faster, but her co-workers kept on quitting, unable to cope with the rapid-fire orders. While three to four chefs would be on a normal shift, sometimes it's just her.
"It's hard because you're helping six different waiters, plus bar orders sometimes and people using the food ordering machine outside the restaurant," she said.
Gonsalez Vivanco, 41, has worked at food establishments at the airport since 2019. She said before the pandemic food would come out faster because there was not a labor shortage. "We understand people are at the airport to fly, they don't have time to wait," she said.
Also frustrating to her is the COVID-19 menu changes at the restaurant aimed at getting orders out faster, at least when she has co-workers. Before the pandemic, she cooked pasta with lobster and pesto, and steaks. Today, hamburgers are more standard fare.
"You could get a hamburgers at McDonald's," she said.
You can still get wine at the terminal. A second establishment, Vino Volo, a wine bar with food options, stays open for dinner until 8 p.m. The restaurant was short-staffed on the evening of Sunday, October 10, when it was the only eatery open. It took 40 minutes for a personal-sized $16 flatbread pizza to be served.
In Terminal B, home of Southwest Airlines, more daily flights mean more food options. While Mexican fast food is out because Don Coyotes is closed, Burger and Brew, Jack's Uban Eats, Famous Famiglia, Esquire Grill, Cafeteria 15L and a second location of Vino Volo are open, although sometimes with limited hours.
Burger and Brew has the longest hours. They are listed as 4:30 a.m to 9 p.m seven days a week. But while burgers abound, pizza is best had earlier in the day; Famous Famiglia, which features pizza by the slice and Italian fare, is open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The hours are also limited at Chocolate Fish Coffee Roasters and Peet's Coffee. Starbucks remains open until 9:30 p.m.
Official hours on the airport website are one thing and the reality is another.
SSP America, which runs six of the open food concessions at the airport, modifies restaurant hours depending on the number of employees it has working on a particular day, said Aamir Deen, president of Unite Here Local 49, the union representing food workers.
Sacramento airport officials say while restaurants may be closed, travelers can always find at least one grab-and-go food choice.
Sacramento airport feeling crunch more than others
Some airports seem to be doing better than Sacramento International in dealing with the worker crunch.
A large majority of restaurants were open during visits the last several months by a reporter to Los Angeles International Airport, Denver International Airport, Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Raleigh-Durham International Airport, Newark International Airport, Salt Lake City International Airport, Pittsburgh International Airport and multiple airports across Texas.
The bigger problem was that lines were long in many airport restaurants, making it impossible to eat during a layover.
Sacramento International Airport spokesman Scott Johnston directed questions about the worker shortage. The two major companies that run most of the food concessions at the airport, HMS Marriott and SSP America, did not respond to requests for comment. Nor did a spokeswoman for Familigia-DeBartolo, which runs Famous Familigia.
The number of food concession workers at Sacramento International Airport has gone from around 300 before the COVID-19 pandemic to around 150 currently, said union head Deen. His union also represents workers at HMS Marriott.
"A lot of long-time people left the workforce and just kind of just retired," he said. "A lot of folks have gotten jobs in call centers, working for Amazon or grocery stores."
Deen said a big issue for many workers was the low pay, which can start around $14.50 an hour and go to around $17. Inadequate public transit to the airport also means workers need cars to get to work, adding to living costs in an already expensive region, he said.
Deen said a number of workers were laid off at the beginning of the pandemic and were on unemployment until the end of September. He said their unemployment benefits averaged $18 an hour, a wage that workers want to make at a minimum going back to work.
"Workers are looking for an equivalent pay rate or more. They want something that will at least keep them even," he said.
Deen said the union is currently negotiating with concessionaires over a new contract, and he hopes that a several-dollar-an-hour raise will be in the offering. He said it would help workers financially, but also the concessionaires would find more employees.
Workers going to higher-paying, more convenient jobs
The executive director of the Airport, Restaurant and Retail Association concedes that airport food and other concession operators are losing workers to non-airport employers.
"It used to be a situation where you could make more money at the airport," said Andy Weddig, whose association was formed last year by major concessionaires. Its members include HMS Marriott and SSP America.
Weddig said that workers can now set their own terms at companies like UPS and Amazon and they "don't have to deal with the weird hours and the inconvenience of getting to the airport."
He said the concessions industry needs to balance the issue of paying workers more with the reality that passenger traffic is still down 20 to 25% from pre-pandemic levels, and sales at some locations are down 30% to 40%.
"The question is how can you afford to raise wages as a business person," he said. "It's a challenge."
The association is also calling on airports to provide bus transportation to allow workers without cars to get to the airport to work and also provide daycare for their children. Airport spokesman Johnston didn't respond to an inquiry as to whether the airport has considered such programs.
The airport concessions have received hundreds of millions in federal COVID-19 relief funds to counter their lost business.
At Sacramento International Airport, the concessions will be receiving $19 million, according to an August 24 memo by Cynthia Nichols, the director of the county department of airports.
Nichols wrote to the County Board of Supervisors that $12.1 million of the money will be used to finalize airport agreements that waive contractual minimum annual guarantee rents for airport concessionaires for the period from April 2020 to December 2020.
She said another $6.9 million will be used to provide relief to airport tenants through December 31.
Speaking generally, Weddig said the aid to concessions is largely going directly to airports because they are recouping the money that the concessions would have given them in guaranteed rent. The relief money doesn't address the current financial challenge of concession operators, he said.
Business travel expert Joe Brancatelli, who writes the column JoeSentMe, said he doesn't expect the situation at Sacramento International Airport and others to change anytime soon.
He said if concessions aren't open now at the busiest time of the travel year, with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up, then they won't be open early next year.
He said that January, February and March are traditionally the slowest months of the year. He said he expects the lack of airport food is "going to be an on-going problem."
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