When the Northwest Arkansas National Airport Regional Airport Authority voted in September to remove its only moving sidewalk from the terminal, it joined the latest in a growing list of airports that have decided passengers will just have to use their own two feet to get to gates.
According to the airport, the people mover was more of a headache than help for travelers.
“When it was working, it would break down constantly,” said Olivia Tyler, Northwest Arkansas National Airport Regional Airport Authority spokeswoman. “I can’t remember the last time it worked,” she said, adding that the obsolete walkway was also taking up a lot of space.
The plan is for the walkway to be removed and replaced with terrazzo flooring and more chairs. “We are growing at an incredible rate. We needed to have more additional seating,” Tyler said.
The sidewalk removal is part of the airport’s more considerable terminal modernization plan. Tyler says the airport attracts an outsized number of business travelers, with Walmart, trucking giant J.B. Hunt, and Tyson Foods all headquartered in the area. Those travelers need to get their gates fast and the moving sidewalk wasn’t doing it.
“I don’t think it will be anything to miss; there is a lot of real estate we could be using to benefit passengers,” Tyler said.
Airports in Chicago, Las Vegas, Orlando, Dallas and Cincinnati, among others, have removed all or some of their moving sidewalks in recent years. But the consensus isn’t clear, other airports — Tampa, Denver, and Norfolk , for instance — are adding or upgrading them.
The economics of airport moving walkways
Some experts point to high maintenance costs for removing the moving sidewalks. Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas spent $2.98 million to remove sidewalks in 2022, citing continued high maintenance costs. Other experts cite safety issues, while others say that the moving sidewalks are bad for airport retailers, as the sidewalks sometimes funnel would-be customers past the shops.
A group of German economics professors released an extensive study earlier this year about airport moving sidewalks. It determined that they aren’t helpful for airport commerce. Still, the sidewalks are useful in speeding up connections between flights if they are strategically placed in ways that best distribute and route traffic.
“Walkways are especially useful if the segments are longer. However, longer walkways can be an obstacle to reaching shops, and passengers seldom walk back to a shop they have already passed on a walkway,” said Nils Boysen, chairman of the faculty of economics at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, and one of the authors of the study. “Therefore, airports decide against user convenience to improve shop access for economic interests.”
The moving sidewalks also take up a lot of space, and any square footage in an airport is valuable real estate.
Dan Bubb, an aviation historian and professor based at the University of Las Vegas Honors College and a former airline pilot, says studies that determine moving sidewalks speed people getting to their gate are only true if the sidewalk is empty and one can walk on the moving sidewalk.
“Otherwise, moving sidewalks slow people down,” said Bubb. The majority of the time, the moving sidewalks are clogged with people, he added, though the belts are helpful for people who might be transporting a lot of luggage and need a bit of rest or have young children with them.
“They are resting, they are checking their phone; that impedes speed,” Bubb said.
A 5-10 mph trip through the terminal
In a facility not far from the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), two brothers are seeking to disrupt and transform the moving sidewalk market.
John and Matine Yuksel founded Beltways, a company devoted to bringing a better and faster walkway to the market. The Yuksel brothers say current regulatory standards cap single-speed moving sidewalks at two miles per hour, but most airports operate at 1 or 1.2 mph, far below average walking speeds.
“It begs the question as to why they are around?” said John Yuksel. “The current market is ripe for disruption.”
The Yuksels are perfecting a variable-speed moving sidewalk that will be able to transport people at speeds of up to 5 mph, or even up to 10 mph on longer moving walkways. So if you get stuck behind someone hogging the whole sidewalk as they pursue their phone, at least you’ll still be moving at a good clip. A network of sensors monitors the walkway for safety and speed. The Yuksels say their walkways will make their debut in 2025.
The Beltways founders also say their walkways design overcomes the hazardous part of the traditional approach — the entry and exit where the sharp combs can lie in wait, where one has to step up and over the “teeth” to risk an unwelcome encounter.
“Ours are flush,” John Yuksel said, “so there is no stepping over.”
Strollers and wheelchairs — which are generally not allowed on moving sidewalks, but people take on anyway — will also have an easier time.
The Yuksels envision their walkways taking the place of trams at airports, saying it is far more cost efficient than an expensive tram and there is no waiting involved.
Airport retail sales and sidewalk traffic
Meanwhile, the debate as to whether the walkways hurt or help shops won’t abate.
Denver International Airport has no plans to join other airports in removing its sidewalks. “We are a large airport and know they have an important role in passenger mobility,” said spokeswoman Stacey Stegman. The airport is currently in the midst of a comprehensive conveyance modernization program that will replace many older moving walkways, she said.
“We currently have 68 moving walkways. Maintenance is done by a third-party contractor (TK Elevator) who is also the original manufacturer in some cases, but not all. We also have moving walkways from Otis, Kone, and Schindler,” Stegman said.
At the Denver airport, Stegman says their 140-plus vendors aren’t suffering from moving sidewalks. “The design of Denver International Airport is such that our moving walkways run where our gates are located. Concessions are grouped at the ends of the walkways, so that isn’t an issue for us,” she said.
Airports where the walkway design runs past concessions isn’t “ideal,” she said, but moving walkways aren’t usually so long that people won’t backtrack to get what they want. “You may lose some customers and impulse buying could be impacted, but if someone is hungry and has the time, they will do what they need to.”
When all else fails for the argument against the current generation of moving walkway, there is the odd accident that stands in its way. “If a shoelace gets stuck in one of those, that’s a big problem,” Bubb said.
Indeed, Delta Airline pilot Kenneth Gow found that out the hard way. Gow filed a lawsuit earlier this year against moving sidewalk maker TK Elevator Corporation for an incident at Denver International in which his foot was caught up in a moving sidewalk. Both sides are currently litigating the mishap, with depositions being taken this month. The incident was caught on video, and Gow missed a couple of weeks of work and sought physical therapy.
“It was a good thing he was wearing some heavy-duty shoes,” said Gow’s Denver-based attorney Brian N. Aleinikoff.
TK Elevator did not respond to a request for comment.
Aleinikoff said that while he doesn’t think moving sidewalks are inherently unsafe, they do require regular maintenance, and he says the “teeth” at the end of the moving sidewalks can be “pretty sharp.” Gow has, Aleinikoff said, made a full recovery.
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