PHL’s new gym offers workout clothes, private showers and on-demand classes for $25 a day

Travelers with downtime at Philadelphia International Airport can now do something besides grabbing beers at Chickie’s & Pete’s or taking a nap at the gate. This month, the airport opened Roam Fitness, a start-up company on a mission to bring gyms to airports. The PHL gym is the company’s second location.

The new gym, located in Terminal F post-security, is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day. Admission is $25 for a day pass.

While airports across the country already offer some workout options including yoga rooms and walking paths, Roam is unique in that it is a full-service gym available for travelers after they go through security.

“Time management on travel days is one of the biggest sources of anxiety and stress for people,” said Cynthia Sandall, a cofounder of Roam Fitness. “It did not make sense to be pre-security because of unpredictable wait times, [and] just general anxiety.”

The idea for airport gyms started when Sandall was completing an MBA at the University of Oregon in 2014 with fellow student and cofounder, Ty Manegold. They liked to travel but didn’t like all of the unhealthy options in airports.

“[You] kind of have to throw your hands up and be like, well, today is not going to be a healthy day, I might as well just succumb to all the places that are available,” she said.

While still in grad school, Sandall and Manegold spoke about their idea to some people in the airline industry. Some didn’t see the value. At the time, people weren’t tracking their health data in the same way that many do today with smart watches and apps on phones, she said.

But others saw the appeal right away. At industry conferences, Sandall began to notice that airport decision makers were shifting their focus from maximizing revenue to improving travelers’ experiences.

Their first gym launched in 2017 at the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, which has seen up to 40 visitors per day.

Getting a business into an airport has its challenges.

Airport business leases can be long, and when a space does become available, it is slated for a specific kind of business, says Sandall. A burger shop that closes won’t be replaced by a nail salon if the airport is looking for a food and beverage option in that space.

“While Roam is not going to be putting out the same kind of revenue numbers as a massive restaurant in the terminal, it is changing the game for passengers and airport and airline employees. There’s value in that, even if it’s not always, you know, top dollar,” she said.

The gym is also an amenity that the airport can offer its employees, making the hiring process more attractive.

“Attracting new and good talent has been a focus for everybody in this time,” said Jim Tyrrell, chief revenue officer of the Philadelphia Airport, in an interview last month. “We are looking at ways to make the experience much more attractive for our partners and our employees — and this is definitely one of them.”

Around noon on Monday, Clifton Wilson, 43, an airport employee who works with airplane ramps, was at the gym for the second time that day. He typically has some downtime between airplanes arriving and departing, and used to get in a quick workout during that time with fitness straps or an ab roller that he brought from home.

“Now I can leave everything at home and just come here,” he said.

He enjoys an annual discounted membership for airport staff, and has told other colleagues about the gym.

“It’s just convenient,” he said. “In between flights, sometimes when you have a flight that comes in, it may not go back out for 45 minutes or an hour. In between those times, if I have nothing else to do, I just come to the gym.”

Roam provides everything a traveler might need for a workout. The purchase of a day pass includes complimentary apparel and sneakers, plus towel service and private shower rooms. If travelers bring their own clothing, Roam can vacuum seal the sweaty stuff into a pouch for odor-free transport.

The gym is around 1,500 square feet and features treadmills, bikes, and an elliptical all from the Italian company Technogym. It also has a non-motorized curved treadmill known as a Trueform Runner, and a cable machine. There is space for mat exercises as well as a Lululemon mirror that shows live classes and on-demand workouts.

After a workout, customers can enjoy an infrared sauna.

“We’re not the first airport to have a gym, but I like to think it’s going to be the nicest,” said PHL’s Tyrrell.

Wilson said when he’s a passenger on a flight out of PHL, he’s going to start arriving at the airport earlier to exercise.

“Travel is stressful. If you can get a good workout in then [you’re] kind of a little bit more at ease.”