Bubble tea franchisor Gong cha will open its first U.S. airport unit at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport before year-end 2026, marking a deliberate push into non-traditional, high-traffic foodservice channels. The location will be operated by Kind Hospitality, an airport concessions specialist led by President and CEO Nava Singam.
With nearly 2,200 locations across 33 international markets and more than 240 U.S. stores in 24 states plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, Gong cha is targeting travel hubs as the next scalable venue type alongside its traditional inline and mall formats. The brand is actively recruiting additional airport concessionaires and experienced operators for further non-traditional development nationwide.
The Operating Model
The Phoenix unit is built on the Gong cha 2.0 operating platform, introduced earlier in 2026. The model supports footprints between roughly 150 and 600 square feet — spanning kiosk to compact inline — and relies on automation capable of producing a finished beverage in under one minute with one to two employees per shift. Critically for landlord negotiations in constrained terminal environments, the concept requires no walk-in coolers or ventilation hoods, eliminating the back-of-house infrastructure that often disqualifies full-service foodservice concepts from airport concession bids.
"Our model was intentionally designed for operational efficiency, flexibility, and speed," said Michael Nedelkovich, Vice President of U.S. Non-Traditional Franchise Development. He described the airport channel as a natural fit for a concept where travelers expect premium quality without extended wait times.
Channel Context
Airport foodservice has become one of the more competitive non-traditional battlegrounds for beverage-forward brands. Constrained square footage, TSA throughput pressure, and captive-audience dwell time make throughput-per-labor-hour a critical metric — exactly the metric Gong cha's automation play is designed to optimize. The move also aligns with a broader industry pattern: as specialty beverage programs expand at convenience and travel retail, operators are looking for concepts that can generate high ticket averages from a compact forecourt-style footprint.
Gong cha's U.S. franchise system has ranked first in the Tea category on Entrepreneur's Franchise 500 list for five consecutive years. The brand has set a target of more than 500 locations across the Americas by 2028, a pace that implies continued reliance on non-traditional venues to complement street-level retail growth. For operators and concessionaires evaluating beverage-forward franchise opportunities in travel retail, Gong cha's low infrastructure ask and documented throughput numbers represent a meaningful differentiator against full-service QSR alternatives.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
