IMO the whole "everyone will work from home going forward" mindset is completely overblown:
- The US commercial real estate market is worth about $16 trillion Not all of that is class A office space, certainly, but I don't see companies writing off 20 year commercial leases and multi-million dollar campuses just yet.
- The WSJ ran an article today about being leaving NYC but many wanting to return. https://www.wsj.com/articles/greener...share_linkedin
- Outside of knowledge work a lot of jobs can't be done remotely which will keep many people in their current location.
- Anecdotally, I work in a tech field and have been getting a lot of recruiters contacting me for jobs that are "remote during COVID" which certainly means they are expecting you to come into the office after COVID.
As far as lounges go the 3rd party lounge idea makes a lot of sense if an airline is starting from scratch but if they already have locations (just closed ones) then other operating dynamics are in play like who owns the space and how long the lease is. Airport design could also be a factor as well. For example while UA doesn't have a lounge here in TPA, AA and DL do. However the lounges are located airside (post security) and it wouldn't be conducive to use the lounge and fly out of a different airside.