Nicolette Nelson was delayed for her flight back to Fairbanks as she raced to her gate at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG). Overcome by a medical problem, she didn’t make it to her gate and ended up spending the night in a Cincinnati hospital. By the next day, she had recovered and was waiting for her flight home, but it was repeatedly delayed.
So Nelson spent hours of her delay in a quiet cubicle in an unlikely place—a bank—waiting for her flight and wasting time on electronic devices.
“It was really, really quiet and that’s what I need,” Nelson said.
Fifth Third Bank was trying to attract that type of traveler when it rechristened its 40-year-old CVG branch last month as a combination lounge and lending center. Weary travelers and busy businessmen alike find prime spots to bank away from the hustle and bustle of the airport, while corporate travelers use the hub to squeeze in more work.
“A woman wanted to rent my office to work in,” recalls Lisa Slocum, the Fifth Third Bank airport branch manager. Slocum directed the woman to other options at the branch.
Other customers use the bank on a purely transactional basis. On a recent day, Hannah Thelen and her mother, Ashley Thelen, were passing through on their way to Spain and stopped to change currency.
“I love the central location,” Ashley Thelen said as she converted dollars into euros.
It’s a central location for a flyer, but a maze of trams, moving walkways and platforms must be navigated to get to it in Terminal B, and it’s past the TSA checkpoint so the branch doesn’t turn customers away from the street .
Fifth-Third Bank is not the first financial institution to create an airport lounge atmosphere. Capital One closed its Washington, DC Dulles International Airport branch in 2020, instead creating “airport lounges” for cardholders at Dulles, along with similar locations at Denver and Dallas airports. The lounges offer amenities on par with an airline rewards club, but they’re only for Capital One cardholders, and banking isn’t part of the experience like at Fifth-Third’s CVG branch.
Capital One Lounge inside Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC
Capital One
If CVG were a city, it would be the fourth or fifth largest in Kentucky on most days, with 16,000 workers employed daily at the airport campus, according to Mindy Kershner, CVG’s senior director of communications, plus nine million gate passengers annually . That’s a lot of potential banking customers. However, full-service airport bank branches are relatively rare, which is surprising in a retail landscape that often resembles an upscale mall rather than a terminal.
Wings Credit Union has a small, full-service branch in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and Wings vice president of marketing Brent Andersen said the branch is also more about serving the large number of airport employees who are members than the traveling public. He adds, however, that in terms of exposure and advertising, even with the airport’s higher rent, the branch is insignificant.
“We would have to spend a lot more on other advertising to get that kind of exposure,” Andersen said, crediting the branch with landing new members.
For Fifth Third Bank, and a handful of other retail banking players, airport branches are more than expensive advertising for the brand (though that’s certainly part of the appeal). They are also functional financial centers and in a digital age where bank branches are under existential scrutiny, some financial companies are betting on airports as a viable and visible place to keep their shingle.
Big banks are adding hundreds of branches
Banks and credit unions adding airport branches are just one more indicator that the long-predicted collapse of in-person banking at the hands of digital isn’t happening quite as expected. The long-term trend remains less retail footprint, but branches have made a bit of a comeback. In fact, FDIC data shows that 2023 saw the first annual gain in the number of stores nationwide, to nearly 70,000, in a decade. That turnaround comes as banking giants JPMorgan Chase and PNC announced plans to open more branches — Chase up to 500, plus 1,700 renovations, while PNC is adding 100 new branches and renovating another 1,000 at a cost of $1 billion over the next three to five years.
When Fifth Third Bank, the nation’s tenth-largest bank by deposits, rechristened its 40-year-old CVG location last month, it did so with plenty of local media coverage, cementing its commitment to airport banking.
“There are very few full-service branches in airports, and this is one of a kind,” said John Sieg, regional retail executive at Fifth Third Bank. The bank is trying to create something like Delta’s Sky Club, except with on-site banking — check cashing, balance checking and currency conversion — and open to everyone. And you won’t be saddled with an overdraft fee to lounge on their couches.
“Our goal is for travelers to have a place to do their full banking and hang out with us. They could hang out with us all day if they have a delayed flight. We’ve had customers do that,” Sieg said. .
Wells Fargo operates a full-service branch at Las Vegas Harry Reid International Airport and, according to a bank spokesperson, has a long-standing relationship with the airport that includes both the branch and several ATMs throughout the terminals. Although Wells Fargo had little to say about the branch, it’s not hard to imagine why it might be popular in Vegas, where slot machines are as much a part of the landscape as espresso machines.
Truist Bank, formerly SunTrust, operates a full-service banking branch at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where customer service remains a top priority, but Brian Davis, director of consumer and small business banking communications, also noted that being at the airport provides the bank with “a high level of brand visibility for the millions of passengers passing through”.
Still, not everyone is sold on the industry because they mix anxiety about timely access to security and the gate with personal finances.
“I think it’s a bad idea,” says Paul McAdam, senior director of banking and payments intelligence at analyst firm JD Power. McAdam says ATMs and advanced feature kiosks are one thing, but a full-service branch, except perhaps in the largest markets, is overkill. JFK Airport in New York has three credit unions in its terminals.
“I feel that airport bank branches would handle a lot of transaction volume but a very low volume of value-added customers looking to open accounts or get advice. Who wants to open a new account at an airport?” McAdam said.
Financial giants are testing the concept of bank-branded destinations more broadly. Capital One has opened a few coffee shops in New York that cater to the remote worker, offering a budget-friendly atmosphere without cash vaults and cashiers watching your every move.
With most travelers focused on travel, Fifth Third admitted that banking is not on the minds of many airport customers. Sieg says the CVG branch does about 1,700 transactions a month.
“That’s probably on the smaller side of the volume of transactions in a traditional bank mart or office,” he said, but the branch’s visibility makes up for the lower volume.
The branch offers a number of areas, including a service bar, where travelers can tap their tablets while watching stuffy, hurried travelers jostling for their gates. The bank also includes a fully private office with phones, a hydration station, sofas and overstuffed chairs, a lure for remote workers.
“Whether you’re a customer or a non-customer, we wanted to put up the best welcome sign we could. Everyone is welcome and can use this space,” Sieg said.
However, if one feels the need to apply for a mortgage during their wait or open a savings account, the branch has this function.