Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in California has opened a premium video game lounge in Terminal 6.
The lounge, named Gameway, is designed to encourage travelers to arrive earlier at the airport and play their favorite video games while waiting for flights. Gameway offers gaming stations with leather lounge or gaming chairs and Razer gaming headphones. Each guest station comes equipped with either an Xbox, PlayStation or Razer gaming PC with over 30 preloaded games, including popular titles like Fortnite, FIFA, NBA2K, Madden, Call of Duty, Minecraft and Rocket League.
The concept was developed and brought to airports by husband-and-wife team Jordan and Emma Walbridge, co-founders and owners of Gameway. After seeing a gaming concept in a mall, they had the idea to develop a gaming lounge specifically for a location with higher daily foot traffic. The first two Gameways opened in DFW in 2018, with new locations in Charlotte (CLT) in North Carolina and Houston Hobby (HOU) in Texas coming later in 2022.
The lounge was created by airport operator Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) and commercial real estate developer Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW). Maral Matossian, URW general manager at LAX, said, “As consumer trends continue to shift toward experiences, we know the value of providing our customers with new ways to enjoy their LAX journey. We are thrilled to welcome Gameway, an innovative women-owned small business, to our LAX line-up.”
Emma Walbridge said, “We want to revolutionize customer experience at airports. Airports can be a pretty boring place, so we wanted something fun and entertaining to offer travelers. They can come and play video games while they wait for their flight to make the time go by quickly. We have something for everyone and continue to be surprised by the demographics of our guests. We have business travelers, families, millennials, you name it. It really shows that travelers are hungry for new experiences like ours.”
Emma credits much of their success to being an ACDBE (Airports Concessions Disadvantaged Business Enterprise) business owner. “Being an ACDBE really helps you get your foot in the door,” Walbridge said. “The resources available are key to helping businesses succeed.”