It’s a bright sunny morning in early November and the mercury is inching up to a forecasted high in the 60s as a conga line of huge yellow trucks fronted by large plows and carrying brooms repeatedly circles a secondary runway at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL). To the casual observer, the scene is peculiar. What are these trucks, that appear to be the sort of vehicles used during snowstorms, doing rolling around the airfield on this lovely autumn day?

New guidance issued by the City of Philadelphia to help stop the spread of COVID-19 temporarily limits dining to takeout and to-go options only. In the airport, travelers have access to many of PHL Food & Shops’ award-winning concessions. Thanks to an ongoing partnership between the Airport Marriott and MarketPlace PHL, hotel guests can order from orderatphl.com and have food from participating PHL restaurants delivered to the hotel’s front desk.

Api Appulingam, Deputy Director of Aviation, Capital Development, at Philadelphia International and Northeast Philadelphia Airports, was recently chosen as President-Elect of the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS), Philadelphia Chapter. 

Philadelphia, a city of firsts, has one more innovation to add to that list.  PHL Food & Shops, the concessions program at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), is the first airport program in the U.S.

PHL Food & Shops recently welcomed its newest additions and celebrated the redesign of a favorite.  

THE SCENARIO: An American Airlines Airbus 321 jetliner with 131 souls on board is preparing to land on Runway 9R during a fast-moving thunderstorm at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) when the flight encounters severe wind shear. The crew begins to abort the landing and do a go-around, but a microburst forces the aircraft down onto the runway, breaking it apart and engulfing it in flames.

PHL’s international air service is not only an economic generator for the Greater Philadelphia region (approximately $2 billion annually pre-COVID-19), the airport’s foreign flights are a lifeline for many travelers. When a federal order prohibited PHL from accommodating international flights for six months, fliers were forced to make alternate, often inconvenient plans. 

Guests coming back to PHL this fall will have some assistance as they reacquaint themselves with the airport. New large PHL Food & Shops wayfinding signs were recently installed to help passengers locate restaurants and stores in each terminal.