dmitriy55

Let me first set the context here. We are not talking about a single-room lounge in a "spoke" airport which has, at best, decent food and maybe a shower. The question is about the huge lounges in big transit hubs in Europe, ME and Asia like LHR, CDG, FRA, AMS, etc. or IST, DXB, DOH, SIN, etc. These flagship lounges all have multiple areas, and sometimes entire floors, for work, relaxing, eating/drinking, etc., 100% of them have showers, and many have extras like complementary spas, massages, ironing services, an art museum (! - yes, in IST), virtual reality booths, the list goes on... Same story for the US fortress hubs like ATL, EWR, ORD, etc. in terms of the number of flyers served, although I know that amenities are generally more basic on that side of the pond.

Anyways, why do almost no lounges in the world have a gym? (I'm actually not aware of any that do, but if there are some, please let me know)

The reasons to have a gym in a lounge are very clear:
1) Due to the low frequency of all but the most popular international routes, it's quite common to have 4hr+ connections, but even 2-3 hours can be plenty for a short workout
2) Any flagship lounge worth its salt already has showers
3) Modern culture places a big emphasis on fitness and well-being for basically everyone, and the executive/businessperson type that's a key target market for premium cabins and FF programs in particular
4) Airlines themselves tout in-flight exercises in their magazines, but the "roll your neck" / "extend your leg" stuff barely counts as real physical activity. Even a quick 30-minute workout can do wonders to compensate for hours sitting on the rear end.
5) A gym does not have to take a lot of space and there is plenty of experience within the hotel industry on designing functional gyms that meed all the liability rules, etc.

So why are flagship airline lounges around the world still not including gyms?

Prospero

You have a point, across the globe very few lounges offer gym facilities. The overwhelming theme is to refuel + relax + rejuvenate. Some lounges allocate space for business and conference use which frequently appear to be under-utilised, so perhaps there is an opportunity to repurpose these spaces to exercise areas if the demand is there.

Cathay Pacific has a yoga space at HKG (Pier Business);
The new East Pacific Lounge at Beijing Daxing (PKX) has a couple of exercise bikes
The plans I've seen for the future Al Mourjan lounge at DOH East include a generously sized gym. The gym may or may not come to fruition though.

There are probably a few others I am not aware of.

Oakshadow

Some in-airport hotels like the DTW Westin have paid gym access for travelers. You generally have to go landslide to use those hotels.

dhuey

Good question. Emirates has no gym at its massive F and C lounges in Dubai. That would seem like the best case for at least a small gym with a few cardio machines and some weights. But, no.

lowfareair

Agreed - even something small would be appreciated. Maybe not as many treadmills as a typical gym would have as most people are already getting plenty of cardio running around the airport, but even something like a standard US hotel gym of several pieces of cardio equipment, selection of free weights up to 30-50 lbs, an all-in-one weight machine, yoga/stretching equipment, etc. would be nice.

Definitely only in lounges with a good number of showers though, maybe with suggestions posted in the gym area to shower afterwards

Burj

I used a small gym in the Etihad first class lounge in AUH a few years ago. I also used to buy gym time (including use of a shower) at Changi in the past...don't know if it is still available. It was part of one of the transit hotels, the same one that also has a pool.

A long time ago, one of the AA Admiral's clubs had a small gym with like one treadmill, one stationary bike, and like one elliptical trainer. It was not advertised at all, you kinda had to know it was there and it was some what popular.

dmitriy55

Yes, gyms at hotels are a good last-resort option for long connections, but an airside gym would really be the winner here.

OUTraveling

I would think that adding gyms would cause more problems that they are worth. A few issues that I can see are space and the increased demands for showers. With the construction of a gym, their must be additional showers constructed or we will run into a multitude of problems. Imagine one emerges from a hard workout session on a spin bike or treadmill and that person is covered in sweat. They try to use the showers but discover the ones that are currently part of the lounge are being used.

A certain number of these individuals will emerge from the gym in sweaty workout clothes to be peckish around the buffet or lounge around on the seating until the showers are available. Next thing we know their are a few more posts a week about people in sweaty gym attire, comments about a funny smell coming from a persons carry on's in J or F (once the sweaty clothes get ripe on a long haul), sitting down on a nice leather chair only to find damp sweat on it, and worsening stains on chairs.

worldwidedreamer

For a number of years one of the AA Admirals Clubs at DFW had a gym (maybe the big one in D?) which had like two decent treadmills, but mediocre weight lifting equipment. Back in the day, maybe pre-2008, there was a great 24 Hour Fitness at Las Vegas airport; I actively preferred long layovers on America West so I could get a workout in.

The closest thing I'm aware of today not mentioned upthread are the massage rooms at some of the Thai locations in Bangkok.

As for showers, I still can't believed that United removed almost all of their showers. (Maybe a couple of international locations still exist.)

ps107

There are gyms in the airside hotel for about $15-20/hour iirc if that's of any interest.

dhuey

Good to know -- thanks!

dmitriy55

Good to know! That's actually a very reasonable price for a one-time workout given the location and the "convenience" factor.

dmitriy55

I think that you make a good point about the increased need for showers, but there is one nuance. The showers are already utilized unevenly during the day, e.g. really heavily in the morning (as people connect from overnight flights) and much less from about 12pm on. Thus, there is plenty of shower capacity for the afternoon and evening even w/ gym-goers adding on to the usage. Now, in terms of the mornings, I think that most travelers who have all but a very short connection try to use the shower anyways, with or without a workout, that's why there is often a queue for the showers. Thus, having these same people also do a workout before the shower would not really require much additional shower capacity.

Now, what would need to be done is a "post-workout" / "shower queue" zone with some post-workout food, drinks, tea/coffee, etc. For the large lounges that occupy several thousand square meters and already have multiple food bars, drinks/coffee stations, etc. this is actually not much to ask for, just re-configuring some of the spaces for the gym and the post-gym lounge. And, last but not least, many of these lounges could actually use more showers for that "morning rush" even without gyms. For example, I'm sitting here in IST right now with a 50+ minute wait for a shower, with no gym in sight

ps107

I've paid the fee in the past just to use the toilet and shower

quirrow

SAS has a very nice gym located in their domestic lounge at OSL when I visited and they have clean shower rooms with lockers as well. This was one of the best I have seen and probably the first one as well. I never thought of it as necessary since chances are low that most transit passengers would want to have a workout during their layover. The hassle of changing and showering after the workout might mean it is rarely on travellers' mind. Below is a photo of the gym with its facilities.