In the late 1990s, my then-young daughter and I - well, my daughter's still young, but not as young as she was then - anyway, my then-young daughter and I visited the grand opening of Terminals 2 and 4 at Ontario International Airport in Ontario, California. While I primarily remember walking around the runway area, the terminals themselves were very impressive. There were ticket counters on the first floor, and escalators leading to the second floor gates and shops, where passengers and their families could eat something near the gate -
Hold it. Did I just say "passengers and their families"?
Yes, I did. People who are younger than my young daughter cannot even remember a time when a family could accompany a passenger all the way to his or her gate. Because after 9/11, extensive security controls were introduced, and at my local airport in Ontario, non-ticketed people were restricted to the first floor. Only ticketed passengers could go up to the second floor, and because there were fewer people in the shops, there were fewer sales. And as passenger traffic declined at Ontario International Airport because of 9/11 (and other reasons), there were even fewer sales, and these days the shops are only open at limited hours.
Thus, the 9/11 security restrictions resulted in a reduction of revenue for airport shops, and therefore for the airports themselves.
(Oh, and by the way, if you have this nagging question about why Ontario opened Terminals 2 and 4, it's because they were planning to build a Terminal 3 in the future as air traffic increased. Because of 9/11, those traffic increases never materialized.)
But now things are changing in Pittsburgh:
For the first time in almost 16 years, a U.S. airport will let non-passengers head past security and mingle in gate areas. Starting next week at Pittsburgh International Airport, you'll be able to greet your long-distance girlfriend at the gate and grab one last (hopefully decent) meal with the in-laws, even if you don't have a ticket, through the TSA-approved "myPITpass."
It's still somewhat restricted - non-passengers can only enter during daytime hours on weekdays, and not at all on the weekends. But this is an eye-catching development. Hopefully the additional airport revenue will offset the increased security costs.
