San Luis Potosí
No. 196, Suite 206
Roma Norte
06700 CDMX
E. hello@thrust.com.mx
T. +52 8190 1290
M. +52155 40941527
How does Wings reinvent its business model to capture new generations and own the mental real estate of every traveler, turning the aerotropolis into its sharpest competitive edge?
In 1965, Joaquín Vargas Gómez had just landed at Mexico City’s airport when he spotted an abandoned North Star DC-4 on the tarmac —and around it, hundreds of people who had never been on a plane. The idea that came to him would, in hindsight, define an extraordinary business legacy: what if instead of watching aircraft from the outside, people could actually dine inside one? He bought the plane, fitted it with tables and a simple menu, and created a category that didn’t exist yet. This is how Wings was born —the original airport café.
Six decades later, the brand had grown from a single plane-turned-dining-room to 21 active locations, 19 of them inside terminals, with a footprint across Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Chihuahua, Mérida, Puerto Vallarta, Hermosillo, and Tampico.
The challenge that landed on Joaquín Vargas Mier y Terán —third generation at the helm— wasn’t about running the business. It was about repositioning it: how do you reclaim the pioneer’s seat in an airport that looks nothing like the one your grandfather walked into?
The Starting Point
Over time, airports stopped being waiting rooms. They became high-traffic retail environments —tighter spaces, sharper competition, and a new set of players who came in with a significant advantage: brands that people already knew from their daily lives, long before they reached the terminal.
Wings, by contrast, lived exclusively inside those terminals. Large footprints, a long history, and a proposition that travelers chose out of habit or familiarity —but not necessarily out of preference. The airports took notice, and with that came a real pressure: evolve, or make room for brands with stronger pull among younger, more demanding travelers.
That’s the context in which Thrust was brought in —not to redesign a space, but to hand Wings back the leadership position in the category it invented.
Owning the Aerotropolis
A Double Loop™ analysis broke the first assumption holding the brand back: that Wings’ customer was simply “the traveler.” Bringing airport staff and floating crew —pilots, flight attendants, ground personnel— into the picture expanded the real universe and drew a sharper line between the core market and the secondary one. Across every profile, two variables kept surfacing regardless of who the person was: how they managed their time, and how they managed their stress.
That reading led to four archetypes covering roughly 80% of the target audience —the Expert, who travels on autopilot and wants calm; the Explorer, who has time to spare and wants discovery; the Reluctant, traveling with family or a team and needing reassurance above all; and the Sprinter, for whom speed isn’t a preference, it’s the only thing that matters.
The second insight was territorial. Wings held something no competitor could replicate: square footage, history, and the rare condition of being genuinely native to the airport —local in an environment where everyone else is just passing through. That became the organizing idea: Wings isn’t a café inside an airport. It’s the original café of the aerotropolis —that distinct ecosystem where people behave differently, manage their emotions differently, and need something no global franchise was ever built to deliver.
Experience in Every Corner
The diagnostic gave way to an intervention built around a single organizing philosophy: POM —Peace of Mind. Not as a tagline, but as an operating criterion that now drives every decision across space, menu, culture, and communication.
The physical architecture was redesigned around a POM-based model, calibrated to the time constraints and emotional needs of each archetype. A secluded lounge zone for the Expert. A higher-tempo area for the Reluctant traveler managing kids and carry-ons. A full bar —with a cocktail program revived from the storied Barón Rojo heritage— for whoever actually has time to sit. And a streamlined pickup format for the Sprinter who doesn’t.
Roberto Treviño Garza led this front, translating POM strategy into form, material, and proportion. Wide corridors built for people pulling luggage. Soft lighting calibrated to reduce sensory overload. Mid-century-inspired furniture that creates warmth without sacrificing flow. And flight screens integrated directly into the dining space —eliminating the anxiety of having to step outside to check the board.
The menu followed the same logic as the room it sits in: designed to solve, not to impress. Comfort food that doesn’t upset your stomach, moves fast, and doesn’t break the budget — layered with hyperlocal touches that understand something most airport concepts miss entirely: the journey begins before boarding, and it lingers well after landing.
Cultural DNA and POM Service
The cultural layer started with the people closest to the guest. Winners —the name the team adopted as a marker of belonging and belief in the brand— were positioned as the primary carriers of the POM philosophy. Purpose was defined, operating practices were rebuilt around the new format, and service rituals were designed to respond to both the guest and the space. Concrete indicators were put in place to track the daily impact of culture and service on the ground.
All of it translated into a cultural playbook that makes Wings’ purpose tangible —activating behaviors tied to the philosophy and value proposition, while building the kind of autonomy and accountability that keeps change from depending on any single person. The transformation was decentralized by design, so the culture could live and move through the entire team, not just from the top down.
Communication and Brand
The final layer was a communication strategy manual that translated the four archetypes into full journeys —with specific persuasion moments mapped to each stage, from before the traveler reaches the airport to after they’ve left. Every message was specified: what it says, when it lands, what tone it carries, and what it’s trying to accomplish, calibrated to the user and their emotional state at that exact point in the journey.
The visual closure was led by Carolina Ortiz, Creative Director at Espina, in co-creation with Thrust. The new identity wove Wings’ red heritage into a mid-century visual language that holds nostalgia and modernity in balance: rounded forms, vibrant colors, typography drawn from the classic aesthetic of sixties diners, and an illustration system that portraits the full range of archetypes living inside the aerotropolis —deepening the brand’s connection to the people who experience it every day.
The result is an end-to-end alignment between architecture, furniture, and the POM philosophy that originated it all. The tagline “Sabor sin escalas” —Flavor with No Layovers— and the “Cafetería EST. 1965” seal complete an identity that honors its origin without being trapped by it.
Building the Future of the Category
The renovation launched in December 2023 at Guadalajara’s airport, and Wings now has five redesigned locations: two in Mexico City, one in Guadalajara plus a kiosk, and one in Chihuahua. The new layout was deliberately engineered to encourage longer stays and higher spend per visit.
The results followed. Average ticket size increased across renovated locations, contributing to a broader growth trajectory at CMR —which reported a 7.6% increase in sales from its own restaurant operations during 2025, a signal that the bet on reimagining the experience model is moving in the right direction (CMR: Integrated Annual Report 2025).
The transformation remains active today, held together by a value proposition that connects directly to what people actually feel when they walk into an airport. For the Winners, that translates into something more concrete: clarity about their role in the experience. They know why they do what they do —and that shows in how they greet you when you need it most.
San Luis Potosí
No. 196, Suite 206
Roma Norte
06700 CDMX
E. hello@thrust.com.mx
T. +52 8190 1290
M. +52155 40941527
