ASIA. Bangkok-based franchisor Exquisine Global has joined the Airport F&B Pathfinders Committee (APC) as its latest Founding Member, reinforcing a commitment to advancing healthier, more sustainable airport dining.
Launched by the CIA and tRetail Labs, the APC is limited to 20 global founding members and is built around the Travel F&B Fit Framework and nrtureAI.
The APC recently welcomed Munich Airport’s Allresto and Areas USA as founding members as it works to shape the next generation of airport food & beverage through to 2035.
Exquisine Global has built a strong international presence through brands including Mango Tree, COCA Restaurant, Mango Chili and NuDii, bringing its expertise in Asian dining concepts to airports and other key travel locations worldwide.
The announcement was made as Exquisine Global rolls out tRetail Labs’ nrtureAI passenger intelligence platform across Mango Tree outlets in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore.
One of the platform’s largest multi-market deployments to date, the initiative reinforces Mango Tree’s growing emphasis on a data-led approach to customer engagement across its global network.
Exquisine Global’s extensive network of restaurants across airports, transport hubs and shopping malls in Asia, the Middle East and beyond gives the company a broad perspective on evolving traveller dining preferences across high-growth aviation markets.
With more than two decades of experience, Exquisine Global Managing Director Trevor MacKenzie has become a recognised leader in Asian and Thai food franchising, overseeing the transformation of Mango Tree and COCA from Bangkok-based restaurant concepts into internationally established brands across more than a dozen countries.
As a member of APC, MacKenzie brings an operator’s perspective shaped by decades of experience managing high-volume, multi-format hospitality concepts across some of Asia’s busiest travel and retail environments.
MacKenzie said: “Airport food in Asia and beyond has enormous potential that the industry has barely begun to tap.
“Joining the Pathfinders Committee gives us a seat at the table to help shape what fit-for-travel dining when it comes to more healthy dining options looks like across all markets, not just for our brands but for the wider region as we are passionate about ensuring travelling diners have choices that are healthy and fit their dining preferences.
“I am also keen to put nrtureAI to work as we look at future airport business development opportunities for the group as I believe this is a great avenue to educate travellers about the already healthy dining offerings Asian food has to offer.”
MacKenzie is also set to help advance the initiative’s expansion into Asia, including plans for a dedicated regional chapter connecting airports, F&B operators and lounge providers with the CIA and tRetail Labs’ work.
“For us, we are passionate and live by a philosophy that we only feed our diners what we would serve our own children.”
Accelerating nrtureAI’s global market expansion
For tRetail Labs, the Mango Tree roll-out marks nrtureAI’s first genuinely multi-market implementation of its airport-specific approach, extending the behavioural and emotional intelligence model developed at Munich Airport to a portfolio of outlets spanning six distinct passenger markets.
tRetail Labs Founder and CEO Sushanta Das said: “Every one of these six markets has a different passenger, a different rhythm, and a different definition of a good meal under pressure. That is precisely why this partnership matters.
“Mango Tree gives us a live, multi-market proving ground for nrtureAI, and Trevor’s operator experience will sharpen how we think about the Committee’s work across Asia.”
Mark Angela, Advisor to tRetail Labs, welcomed MacKenzie’s appointment, highlighting his experience in operating hospitality concepts across airports, transport hubs and retail destinations in Asia.
He said: “Trevor brings something the Committee genuinely needs: decades of running high-volume, multi-format hospitality across some of the toughest travel environments in Asia.
“That is not theoretical knowledge, it is operator instinct, and it will sharpen how we think about what fit-for-travel dining actually requires market by market.”
tRetail Labs and the CIA are expected to reveal additional Founding Members as they complete the Committee’s inaugural 20-member global cohort.
Airports, operators, and concessionaires wishing to engage with the Travel F&B Fit (TFF) Framework, a Menus of Change evaluation, or the Airport F&B Pathfinders Committee can do so via ciaindustryleadership.com/airport-fb. 
