Curiosities about the VIP Lounges at Madrid-Barajas Airport under the management of GIS

When we spend hours inside an airport, and more specifically in one of its VIP Lounges, one may get curious regarding how some things work, where you might end up asking yourself how many passengers visit those VIP Lounges in a month, how many sandwiches are consumed or where are the menus that they offer cooked?

At GIS we have the concession to manage all of the VIP Lounges at Madrid-Barajas airport which is why we have decided to collect some curiosities and interesting facts about the airport and the VIP Lounges you can find in it, so that you can get to know a bit more of what goes on “behind the scenes”. Here they go!

How many people work in our VIP Lounges at Madrid-Barajas?

We have 130 permanent employees that can be incresed up to 150 during the summer in order to offer a quality service to all travellers.

What is the average of passengers visiting the airport’s VIP Lounges?

Depending on the lounge you will find more or less passengers. In the Cibeles VIP Lounge for example, the average in a month is approximately of 20.000 travellers, whilst in the Plaza Mayor VIP Lounge the average is 11.400.

How many sandwiches are consumed among all of the VIP Lounges operated by GIS? And which are the most desired meals? 

Although the number will vary from one day to another, the daily consumption of sandwhiches is between 400 and 700. Regarding the rest of the meals offered, the most desired ones on a daily basis are gazpacho, pumpkin soup, squid stew, lentil soup or cod pie among others.

Where is the food offered in Madrid-Barajas airport VIP Lounges cooked? And what changes have been introduced in the kitchen since the new concession with GIS?

Menus are cooked in the Cibeles kitchen where, as a relevant fact, renowned chef Andreu Genestra has just created a new special menu for our VIP Lounges that we will very soon start to offer. Our classic Food & Beverages menu has also grown to offer many more products and better quality than a while back.

What other improvements have we implemented from GIS with the new concession in the airport?

Currently we have 9 supervisors who control daily our VIP Lounges at Madrid-Barajas airport, 6 more employees in charge than in the previous concession. Furthermore and in order to motivate our staff, we have created a recognition program to choose the Employee of the Month. As an interesting fact for travellers, we have also increased the number of amenities for showers in VIP Lounges.

What are our goals for the VIP Lounges at Madrid-Barajas airport? 

Our main goal is to meet passengers’ expectations in every service. We currently have a satisfaction rate of 3.9 above 5 and our goal is to keep on improving to achieve excellence. During our first month we received 44 congratulations from our travellers, a much higher feedback than to the one received in the past 2 or 3 years.