The Atlantic

Why Your Airport Burger Costs That Much

Yes, travelers have nowhere else to go. But that’s not the only reason everything is so expensive at the gate.
Source: Alexander Farnsworth / Getty

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You can get almost anything at the airport in 2024. But it’s going to cost you.

First, here are four new stories from The Atlantic:


Warped Airport Logic

A $30 hamburger. A $7 coffee. A $38 shower (yes, some airports have showers now). The modern airport offers a cornucopia of overpriced delights for the modern traveler.

An obvious reason that airport vendors get one too. But airport vendors also charge what they do because of the peculiar cost of doing business there. Once you step through an airport’s sliding doors, you enter a new reality—or, as Emily Stewart wrote in

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