Editor’s Note: Airport Experience News launched the ACDBE of Distinction awards in 2024 to honor small, Airport Concessions Disadvantaged Business Enterprises-certified firms that excel in their field. The program continues this year. Gilbert Aranza of Star Concessions is among four winners for 2026.
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Gilbert Aranza was 16 years old when he took a night janitor job at Dobbs House at what is now George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), working 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. before heading to school. It was 1969, the airport had just opened, and Aranza stayed through summers, learning every position in the restaurant by filling in for whoever failed to show up.
More than five decades later, Aranza, president of Star Concessions, has built an operation that reflects every one of those early lessons. He’s been known to walk visitors through his concessions at Dallas Love Field (DAL) and say, “Let’s go down this escalator—I’ll show you what 30+ years of airport experience has brought you.”
Before airports, Aranza was briefly a federal tax attorney but realized the fit was wrong. He left to pursue what he loved and launched two restaurant concepts in Dallas before becoming Pizza Hut’s first Hispanic franchisee.
In 1994, the City of Dallas put the entire food and beverage operation at DAL up for bid. Aranza entered without a lobbyist, without a prime partner and with a clear philosophy. “We’re going to win on merit,” he says. “I’m not going to win because somebody is promising somebody money. We’re going to do it the right way. And if we lose, we lose.”
He didn’t lose. His proposal scored 92 out of 100; the next closest competitor scored 78. He locked in national brands including McDonald’s, Chili’s and Pizza Hut, and made a commitment that was then essentially unheard of in airport concessions, agreeing to charge no more than 10% above street prices for the same branded products. It signaled that a minority-owned small business could compete against major national operators and beat them cleanly.
Six months later, DFW awarded Star Concessions 15 additional food and beverage locations.
In 2003, the company teamed with HMSHost to establish 15 Starbucks units at DFW. A decade later, Star Concessions partnered with HMSHost and Hudson Group to add food and beverage and retail units at DAL. The company has operated there for 31 years.
The Staff That Stayed
If there is one thread running through Aranza’s three decades in airport concessions, it’s this: take care of your people and the rest follows. “My view is if we’re good operators and we deal well with all of our employees, we’ll make money,” he says.
That philosophy was tested during Covid. On March 17, 2020, Aranza called his managers and directors into his office and asked how many could stay without pay. Those who agreed received a promise. “All the money that they give up to stay with me, I will pay them back first when business comes back.”
He kept it. Star Concessions was the only operator at DAL that remained open throughout the shutdown. When travel returned, the company was fully staffed. Sales in 2021 came in at 140% of 2019 levels. Today, 79% of Star Concessions full-time employees are female or ethnic minorities, a figure Aranza describes as central to his mission from the start. “I wanted to create a business where people could progress naturally, people of every race, sex and alternate lifestyle. I didn’t give a hoot.”
Building What Lasts
Aranza has watched the ACDBE program face mounting pressure and is pragmatic about what comes next. “Trump is taking away the ACDBE [program],” he says. “But I will graduate out of the small business category.”
He sees that transition as a handoff. He currently mentors five minority business owners he intends to bring along with him. “Once I graduate, they’re going to be my go-to people, so I’m teaching them how to take on this business,” he says. “I’ve been mentoring since 1994. It’s something I think is absolutely necessary.”
That mentorship runs parallel to an ambitious expansion push. Star Concessions was recently awarded four spaces at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS), with openings planned for later this year and into 2027. Aranza also has his eye on IAH with hopes of bringing Raising Cane’s into the market, and on the new Terminal C at San Antonio International Airport (SAT).
Thirty-one years at DAL is a long time by any measure. Aranza built this business on the conviction that he could win airport contracts honestly, treat his employees well and still outperform everyone else on volume. “Always do the right thing,” Aranza says. “Always be ethical. Always be honest. And I think that is what has gotten me where I am.”
