We bring you the second in a two-part feature about Antalya International Airport as a food & beverage destination, following a recent visit by The Moodie Davitt Report President Dermot Davitt. He speaks to BTA Food and Services Group CEO Baha Bülbül about the way forward for airport dining. Click here for part one. [Note: Fraport-TAV will host the Airport Food & Beverage + Hospitality Conference & Awards on 3-4 June 2027; click here for further details.]
To manage the vast and varied F&B footprint at Antalya International Airport – with huge numbers of travellers to serve at peak times – is demanding, but BTA Food and Services Group’s backbone of technology and infrastructure provides strong support, says CEO Baha Bülbül. As reported, the F&B business is managed by the BFA joint venture between BTA (60%) and Fraport (40%) across around 10,000sq m of space.
Time constraints at the airport mean technology is vital and here, ordering on screen at fast-moving outlets matters for speed. In addition, in a fresh initiative planned for next year, QR codes in the gate areas will allow ordering from any restaurant in T2, with delivery to where the guest is located.
Click on the video for part one of our interview with BTA Food and Services Group CEO Baha Bülbül; part two appears below.
Beyond this, in self-service restaurants, BTA will implement an AI-led system spanning sales control to inventory control that will boost efficiency.
Technology is just one element underpinning the business: BTA can lean on its 23,000sq m food factory and warehouse at its Istanbul base, while an innovation kitchen takes in culinary graduates from the best universities in the country to develop menus for both today and tomorrow.
Addressing how the market is evolving, and how BTA and BFA will react, Bülbül says: “As F&B becomes more important in the airport experience and more important for airport non-aeronautical revenues, we know that design and presentation matters.
“So does offering alternatives. We will soon offer smaller portion sizes across our menus to accommodate those people who want to eat less.
“On sustainability, we are using cage-free eggs and organic ingredients, with no more single-use cutlery, alongside various techniques to save energy. It is a big focus for us and for the next generation.”
F&B and lounges are not the only sectors in which BFA is active at the airport. BTA and Lagardère Travel Retail already jointly manage Relay travel essentials outlets at Zagreb and Almaty airports; now the partnership has extended (through BFA) to Antalya T2 with a 350sq m store, alongside a Discover Türkiye souvenir shop-in-shop.
Bülbül says: “Some travellers come to the airport five hours before they fly and this gives a shopping experience landside. We decided to do Relay in a bigger way here. Our destination store carries food and many cultural items from around the country.
“We worked for a long time with Lagardère Travel Retail on this, taking products from around the country, many of them from small players and supporting them to become certified and to sell their goods. In this way we are supporting communities.”
The partners are identifying further Turkish airport opportunities, with Ankara, Izmir and Bodrum possible future locations.
For BTA more widely, expansion is also on the agenda beyond its core network at airports managed by parent TAV Airports.
Bülbül says: “We are looking at various scenarios for our growth strategy. The main targets are Africa and Central Asia – we have our business already at Almaty Airport – as well as Europe.”
For now, consolidating space at T2 while planning for the next phase of expansion lead the pipeline plans.
“Our first phase of openings is complete in the T2 expansion and we are very happy with it. We have recorded a +40% rise in spend per passenger among departing passengers compared to the previous operator since we implemented the new programme.
“By the end of the year we will occupy a further 12,000sq m with new grab & go concepts plus a Paul branded outlet. Then we have the seasonal Terminal 1, which only operates for five months. And we take over space in the Domestic Terminal.
“We will then complete the second phase at Antalya and we will look to grow internationally, backed by our investments in innovation and technology, in which we are becoming a sector leader.” 
