Bubble tea franchisor Gong cha is bringing its technology-forward 2.0 operating platform to U.S. airport concessions for the first time, with a location planned for Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport before the end of 2026. The unit will be operated by Kind Hospitality, an airport and hospitality concessionaire led by President and CEO Nava Singam, marking a deliberate pairing of Gong cha's scalable tech stack with an operator experienced in high-volume travel environments.
The 2.0 Stack
Launched earlier in 2026, the Gong cha 2.0 operating platform is the operational engine behind the airport push. The model supports flexible footprints ranging from approximately 150 to 600 square feet — accommodating kiosks and compact inline formats — while leaning on automation technology capable of producing a finished beverage in under one minute with just one to two employees per shift. Critically, the format eliminates traditional back-of-house infrastructure requirements such as walk-in coolers and ventilation hoods, removing two of the most common barriers to entry in constrained airport concession spaces. That combination of speed, small footprint, and reduced build-out complexity positions the concept directly against legacy QSR formats competing for the same high-rent airport square footage.
"Our model was intentionally designed for operational efficiency, flexibility, and speed," said Michael Nedelkovich, Vice President of U.S. Non-Traditional Franchise Development at Gong cha. "This opening represents an exciting opportunity to introduce more travelers to the Gong cha brand while continuing to build scalable growth across multiple formats."
Why Airport Concessions Now
The move reflects a broader industry trend of technology-enabled beverage and fast-casual brands targeting non-traditional, high-throughput venues — airports, stadiums, transit hubs — where table turn and cover count economics are replaced by pure throughput per square foot. For operators, the calculus is straightforward: a sub-60-second ticket time with a one-to-two person labor model can meaningfully compress labor cost as a percentage of revenue compared with conventional QSR buildouts, a critical factor as airport concession rents remain elevated post-pandemic. The beverage-only format also sidesteps the kitchen complexity that makes full-service restaurant concepts difficult to scale in travel hubs, aligning with the growing operator appetite for ghost kitchen and compact-format efficiency seen across the broader foodservice tech landscape.
Gong cha currently operates more than 240 locations across 24 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico, and has held the number-one ranking in the Tea category on Entrepreneur's Franchise 500 list for five consecutive years. The brand is targeting more than 500 locations in the Americas by 2028, and the non-traditional channel — airports, stadiums, and other captive-audience venues — is positioned as a meaningful contributor to that unit count. The company is actively recruiting experienced concession operators and concessionaire partners to support additional airport and high-traffic venue development nationwide.
For hospitality tech and franchise operations teams tracking digital-ordering and labor-management efficiency in non-traditional formats, Gong cha's airport rollout offers a live case study in how a purpose-built automation platform can unlock venue categories that were previously cost-prohibitive for specialty beverage brands.
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.
