Logan's high-flying food courts

Upgrades help airport improve the bottom line as airline travel wanes

Dunkin' Donuts occupies about 1,000 square feet at Logan's upgraded Terminal C food court - the chain's largest airport store in the country. In all, seven eateries will be available at the food court. Terminal C's concession sales rose 12 percent in a year. (Photos by David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)

Think fancy food court is an oxymoron? Not at Logan International Airport.

After a $5.5 million upgrade of Terminal C's food court, its Dunkin' Donuts now is the largest one at airports nationwide - and the only one with a trendy lounge. Burger King displays its menu on wide-screen LCD monitors. And Au Bon Pain has arches that create sunflower-petal shadows on the terrazzo floor.

Designers persuaded seven restaurants - also including Currito Burritos Without Borders, Ryo Asian Fusion, Famous Famiglia, and Jerry Remy's Sports Bar & Grill - to splurge on expensive countertops and eye-catching architecture. The intent, the designers say, is to pique passengers' curiosity so they'll check out the concessions - and then stand in the checkout lines.

"Everyone's rushing through an airport. You want to grab their eye," said Steve Dumas, senior vice president of retail design for Westfield Corp., whose subsidiary manages Terminal C's concession program.

The food court, with its airy architecture and open kitchens, has gradually unveiled its eateries since the spring and will be complete next week with the opening of Remy's, co-owned by the namesake sportscaster.

The additions helped Terminal C's concession sales rise 12 percent in June, to $3.9 million, from $3.5 million in June 2007. Airportwide, concession sales for the fiscal year ended June 30 increased 7.5 percent to $145 million, up from $135 million the year before.

That's good news for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs the airport and pockets about 11 percent of concession revenues, or $15.9 million in the last fiscal year.

Jack Hemphill, Massport's aviation business general manager, bets total concession sales will keep improving as food court renovations continue. Terminal B's upgrade was finished earlier this year, and a yearlong modernization of Terminal E's dining area will begin in October.

Logan was the North American airport with the fourth-highest food and beverage sales per arriving or departing passenger in calendar 2007, according to the annual list that Airport Revenue News plans to release next week. Last year, each Boston flier spent $5.77 on food and beverages, on average, up from $5.50 in 2006.

Increasing per-passenger concession revenue is important for Massport as fewer flights and travelers use the airport due to high jet fuel costs and concerns about the economy. Logan's yearlong dip in passenger traffic continued in July, with 152,277 fewer fliers, a 5.7 percent drop from the previous July, said Massport spokesman Richard Walsh.

And airlines have scheduled 7.9 percent fewer seats for Logan flights in both October and November, compared to the same months last year. Seat capacity will rebound a bit in December, but still be down 1.2 percent compared to a year earlier, Walsh said.

Massport started envisioning Terminal C's eating options more than two years ago. Hemphill's mouth watered at the idea of establishing venues for cable TV celebrity chefs, including Masaharu Morimoto, Bobby Flay, and Emeril Lagasse. "My dream would be to have a Food Network food court," Hemphill said.

One of Logan's concession management companies proposed the idea to Food Network, but it didn't pan out, Hemphill said.

Still, the Terminal C food court attracted impressive-looking tenants.

Au Bon Pain built its only open-air eatery and topped it with a sunflower trellis. It was costly to construct, so the wavy arches soar above only part of the eatery, said Ed Frechette, senior vice president of marketing.

Dunkin's cafe features a warm cocoa-colored wall and softly glowing sandy-orange drop-pendant light fixtures that create a calming lounge for weary travelers, said Jimmy FitzGerald, the Canton-based chain's vice president of concept innovation. Its sign has brushed stainless-steel letters instead of plastic ones.

The Dunkin' Donuts beckoned 18-year-old Jeremy Eichenlaub and his parents to unwind at a table on Monday, sipping coffee and nibbling English muffin sandwiches. It was a comforting place for the Needham family to recover - and even shed a few tears - after bidding Eichenlaub's India-bound twin brother adieu.

Eichenlaub, a Dunkin' loyalist who every week has eaten at the chain's store across from his high school, likes this venue's revamped look better. "It's warmer, more relaxing."

But Kenneth Zou, a Boston financial analyst, said the lack of a ceiling and four walls creates awful acoustics. "This is a little loud," said Zou, 44. He also wanted the planters bordering the seating area to rise to eye level to increase privacy and screen off the commotion at the airline counters.

Suddenly, his cellphone rang. His business partner was looking for him. Zou waved, making eye contact without getting up. "Maybe it's good it's open," he said.

Nicole C. Wong can be reached at nwong@globe.com.