Why Airport Urgent Care Failed to Take Off in Dallas and Las Vegas

Two years ago this month, we reported on the opening of an urgent care facility within the confines of D/FW International Airport in Dallas/Fort Worth, TX. The thinking at the time was that the combination of roughly 65,000 people working on site and around 100 times that number—65 million people—passing through the airport yearly made for a substantial customer base. Another operation followed suit, at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. However viable as the logic behind those openings may have been, the logistics of operating in an airport have proved too daunting and both operations shut down recently. There are lessons to be learned from the failed attempt that might be useful for other operators considering taking a similar chance, however. For one, in the case of DFW, there was no central terminal where passengers and workers congregated. Then there were the airport regulations requiring on-site merchants to be open from 4 am until 11 pm daily, which likely put a strain on payroll and operating costs. And airline policies might have worked against the idea, as well; like many (if not most) companies, the airlines have contracts with various national healthcare companies to administer occ med services for their employees. Added up, those factors presented too stiff a challenge for operation a large-scale urgent care facility.