Luxury travelers may get a case of déjà vu the next time they visit an airport lounge — are they waiting for a flight or having a night out at a high-end restaurant?

Designers are trying to kick it up a notch in the new breed of airport lounges. From furniture to food, the experience increasingly aims to resemble upscale bars and white tablecloth restaurants. Enhanced luxury lounges have recently opened in Atlanta, Boston, New York and Austin, Texas, in the United States and abroad in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

Luxury lounges are designed to try to whisk travelers away from the noise and stress of airports, said Laura Banse, senior vice president of global design and construction at lounge builder and operator Airport Dimensions.

The goal is to make travelers “never believe you are in an airport,” Banse told CoStar News. The aim is to “feel like you’re in a five-star environment.”

Credit card issuers and airlines are amping up the airport lounge experience as business and leisure travel rebounds from the pandemic. U.S. airlines carried a record 77.7 million passengers in November, a 1.3% increase from October, according to the most recent data available from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Airline passenger data recorded by the Transportation Security Administration showed an increase in volume in the early months of 2024, surpassing 2023 levels.

Airports are spending billions of dollars to accommodate more travelers. New airport terminals recently opened in Boston, New York and Kansas City, Missouri, and airport renovations are planned or underway in Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles and Nashville, Tennessee. It’s a boon to the architecture industry, as the aviation sector was one of its leading sources of revenue in 2023.

These types of eateries are still very much niche players among meal providers in airports. They also have a built-in limitation: Almost everyone on the premises has somewhere else they need to be, limiting the desire to linger over a meal. Attracting locals to a crowded airport with security checkpoints for a meal out isn't realistic, so faster, less formal fare is the most common offering aimed at those who want to complete their trip.

Even so, airports are expected to continue generating work for architects this year, design firm Gensler said in a recent report, both with large infrastructure projects and for interior design work like luxury lounges.

Some new luxury airport lounges are sponsored by JPMorgan Chase, American Express, Capital One and other banks with tie-ins to credit card rewards programs. Lounge memberships require cardholders to pay for premium cards with the most perks. The American Express Platinum card, for example, carries a $695 annual fee.

The American Express Centurion lounge at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport features a buffet curated by Deborah VanTrece, an Atlanta chef who was a 2023 semifinalist for the James Beard Award for best chef in the Southeast U.S. Her menus have included black-eyed pea biryani and za’atar chicken thighs with tomatillo chimichurri.

The Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club at LaGuardia Airport in New York is outfitted with trendy furniture made by Italian designers Cappellini, Moroso and De Padova. Artwork and photography by local artists, some works commissioned specifically for the lounge, adorn the walls. Chase commissioned New York artist Eugenia Mello to design a special luggage tag for those with lounge access.

It's important to give a luxury lounge some local flavor, helping drive home the point that you’re at your favorite watering hole and not the airport, said Ginger Gee DiFurio, design director at architecture firm Corgan. Her firm has designed luxury lounges at airports in Boston, New York and Charlotte, North Carolina.

“We seek inspiration from the architecture, art, culture, nature, and entertainment of the locale and incorporate these elements as part of the discovery process early in the design process,” DiFurio told CoStar News.

Corgan was design architect and architect of record for the Chase lounge at LaGuardia, and Icrave was the conceptual designer and brand architect.

Airport lounges sometimes occupy terminal space vacated by another food or shopping outlet, making the lounge readily visible to passengers traversing a terminal and serving as a type of advertising for the lounge.

That wasn’t the case at LaGuardia.

LaGuardia officials made a former back office available for its new Chase Sapphire Lounge. The space was difficult to reach and lacked windows, said Banse, who led the project for Airport Dimensions. But it compensated with extra room — its 21,800 square feet is larger than most airport lounges.

“It was never set up to have a full kitchen or any of the other amenities we offer,” Banse said, adding that the architects and construction managers had to devise how to install the necessary water and electric-power hookups in the space.

Airport Dimensions’ design includes extensive greenery throughout the space, not fake plants or trees. The plantings are real and lend a needed sense of the outdoors to the lounge, Banse said.

The strategy is to try to make guests feel like they are "walking into a spa,” Banse said.

The new breed of lounge draws a sharp distinction for travelers: those who can afford the trappings of first-class seats and limited-access lounges compared to those who fly coach or on discount, no-frills airlines.

The Chase Sapphire Terrace lounge at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Austin provides a semi-outdoor space to enhance the experience, according to a bank spokeswoman. The American Express Centurion Lounge in Atlanta not only has an outdoor deck with views of the runways but also a whiskey bar stocked with premium spirits.

Next-wave lounges aren’t just for adults, either. Collinson Group’s Airport Dimensions, a fee-based service that provides access to airport lounges worldwide, created Game Space, a lounge at Dubai International Airport equipped with 40 video game stations.

At least one lounge sponsor, Etihad Airways, is shooting for the moon when it comes to luxury design and furnishings.

At Etihad’s lounge at Abu Dhabi’s Zayed International Airport, a rooftop lounge sits atop Terminal A, providing views of takeoffs and landings. The lounge’s Constellation Bar has a 172-piece, 82-foot-long bespoke glass lighting sculpture that depicts the Abu Dhabi skyline.

Etihad has so far held the no-smoking police at bay. A room is reserved for smokers and includes Chesterfield-style sofas. Nappers can rest in rooms fitted with daybeds designed by Italian luxury fashion house Armani/Casa.

Etihad has a super-luxury lounge embedded within its standard lounge, “offering an elevated dining experience with à la carte dining and a fine and boutique wine selection recommended by in-house experts. The cuisine will reflect the best of Emirati gastronomy as well as the destinations Etihad flies to,” according to the airline.

Lounge access is usually restricted to customers with perks-laden credit cards. In the JPMorgan Chase Bank ecosystem, holders of the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card, J.P. Morgan Reserve Card and Ritz-Carlton Credit Card have access. Cardholders of the two Reserve cards can bring two guests for free and pay a $27 fee for a third guest. Ritz-Carlton cardholders can bring an unlimited number of guests for free.

Travelers who are flying in one of the top three classes on Etihad Airways can access the carrier’s lounges. Economy flyers on Etihad can purchase access, subject to availability.

Airports could add even more lounges based on demand, Airport Dimensions’ Banse said. The company designs and operates The Club Airport Lounges, a network of lounges that include self-branded locations and others that have a sponsor like a bank or airline.

Atlanta airport officials are trying to find space for The Club to expand, Banse said. The Club Airport Lounges lets airport operators know when they want more room, but space considerations are typically outside their control. Many new lounge locations are placed in concourse spaces vacated by previous dining or retail tenants.

Chase is also expanding its lounge network, developing new locations in Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Phoenix and San Diego. A Chase spokeswoman said opening dates have not been announced for the new locations.