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The case discusses SurfAir's European market entry. For a flat fee, subscribers can fly on SurfAir's network as much as they wish. It describes their entry into the market and the network development, as well as subsequent changes to the business model. While SurfAir initially operated one jet on their Zurich-London route, this route was soon discontinued. Instead, SurfAir collaborated with another airline operator offering single seats. A little more than a year after launching their European venture, SurfAir closed their European operations. This case allows to develop an understanding of the reasons why this venture was marked by failure.

In this chapter, we investigate experiences of air passengers in the airside setting of commercial airports. While the concept of liminality has found increased interest in tourism studies, only few studies have contextualized the airside experience as a liminal one. We investigate the role of food and beverage consumption in this context as well as factors influencing food and beverage outlet patronage intentions. Using a European non-hub commercial airport as practical unit, we applied a mixed methods single case study methodology to investigate food and beverage outlet choice in the airside setting. It becomes evident that perceptions of liminality play an important role in this context. Findings support the claim that the airport environment constitutes a special context, an encapsuled or protected space; not only for passengers, but for employees alike. Whilst airports have a certain uniformity to regular travellers, infrequent travellers perceive air travel as an extraordinary activity, often paired with a certain uncertainty about related procedures. Evidence suggests that passengers' emotional states play a key role in consumption decisions. Depending on travel purpose and direction, passengers showed differing consumption behaviours.Understanding the airport airside area as a liminoid space and using the concept of boundary work for the transition between home and work realms (and back again) thus serves as a suitable frame of reference to help understand the phenomena that were observed and analysed in this study. Food and beverage consumption can then be understood to support the mental transition between home and work realms. Our findings thus allow linking the passenger clusters' different consumption behaviour to prevailing emotional states in their transgressions between work and home realm in the liminoid airside context.

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