Fifteen gaming stations, 43-inch 4K monitors, and a rotating lineup of 25 to 30 titles are now waiting for travelers on Concourse A at Pittsburgh International Airport. The new arrival, a video game lounge and concession area from a company called Gameway, held its grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony this week, giving fliers with time to kill something to do besides stare at a departures board.
According to TribLIVE, the Pittsburgh location occupies 650 square feet, considerably smaller than the more than 1,000 square feet that other Gameway locations tend to occupy, with those larger sites typically holding around 20 gaming stations. Even so, this is the first time the company has set up shop inside what it considers a mid-tier airport, following stops at bigger hubs including Charlotte Douglas International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport.
The lounge runs on Xbox, PlayStation and PC consoles, and its library leans family-friendly, featuring titles like Madden, NCAA Football, Fortnite and Crash Bandicoot while steering clear of games featuring gruesome violence. Snacks and drinks are sold on-site, and noise-canceling headphones are provided for anyone trying to tune out gate announcements.
What It Costs to Play
Gaming time isn't free: Gameway charges $20 for 30 minutes, $30 for an hour, or $50 for unlimited play. Priority Pass members get a break, though — the credit-card lounge program grants cardholders complimentary access with one hour of gaming and a bundled snack-and-beverage choice thrown in, according to Priority Pass. The Concourse A location, situated near Gate A4, runs daily from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Standard promotional discounts are also available, including a 10% rate for active-duty military and reduced pricing for travelers who follow the brand on social media, per a report from LoungeNerd.
The opening ceremony drew some local flavor beyond the usual ribbon and scissors. Pittsburgh cosplayers Cash Branson, dressed as Tony Stark from Iron Man, and Dana Desafey, dressed as a character from The Witcher, made appearances at the event, according to the same TribLIVE report.
The Founders Behind the Controllers
Gameway traces back to 2017, when Jordan and Emma Walbridge developed the airport gaming concept before debuting it at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in 2018. Jordan Walbridge, a 44-year-old native of Portland, Oregon, co-founded the company and told TribLIVE that the idea addresses a simple problem: people have to do something while waiting for a flight. Pittsburgh now marks the company's expansion to a dozen other airport locations nationwide.
The Walbridges have also been evolving their model beyond stand-alone gaming stalls. In May, they opened Portal Lounge at MSP, a 3,800-square-foot upscale venue in Minneapolis featuring 17 gaming stations, chef-led dining and a robotic bartender — a sign the founders are chasing a broader hospitality concept alongside their original airport arcade format.
Why Pittsburgh, Why Now
The lounge's arrival fits into a larger overhaul of Pittsburgh International Airport's airside concessions. Tyler Laughlin, vice president of government and stakeholder strategies at the airport, told TribLIVE that the concessions program should match travelers' mix of interests, adding that an entertainment option would diversify offerings for the flying public.
That push comes on the heels of the airport's completed $1.7 billion Terminal Modernization Program, which opened an 811,000-square-foot landside terminal in November 2025 and consolidated ticketing, security and baggage into one facility, according to Gensler and the Allegheny County Airport Authority. The redesign eliminated a half-mile underground train ride between terminals, cutting curb-to-gate travel times by 50% and saving airlines more than $20 million annually in operations and maintenance costs, per design documents from HDR and Gensler.
The math behind the timing is straightforward. Pittsburgh International Airport handled 9.84 million passengers in 2025, with 98% of travelers starting or ending their trip in Pittsburgh rather than connecting elsewhere, according to airport authority traffic reports cited by Blue Sky News. With less time spent shuttling between terminals, departing passengers have more idle minutes to fill on the concourse, which helps explain why the airport has been layering in amenities beyond typical shops and restaurants — including two Jabbrrbox private work pods, a 1,500-square-foot sensory suite modeled after a mock airplane cabin, and four outdoor terraces.
Part of a Bigger Gaming Push
Pittsburgh isn't the only Midwestern-adjacent airport betting on interactive entertainment to boost concessions revenue. In July 2024, the Wayne County Airport Authority approved two Gameway locations at Detroit Metro as part of an $18.8 million concession upgrade aimed at modernizing terminal entertainment. Together with stops in New York-JFK, Houston Hobby and Chicago Midway, Pittsburgh's lounge extends Gameway's footprint to 12 venues across eight U.S. airports, a network increasingly reaching beyond the country's biggest hub cities into regional markets like Pittsburgh's.
