Burger King has opened two franchise restaurants in the new terminals of Beijing Capital International Airport and Shanghai Pudong Airport, respectively.

Xiao Dewei, general manager of Burger King (Shanghai) Corporation, says that at present, entering the airport catering industry is an important strategy for the company. Burger King will continue to investigate ten mainland airports and open restaurants in those places.

In China, Burger King's brand awareness is much lower than McDonald's and KFC. Since it opened the first restaurant in Shanghai on June 28, 2005, Burger King only opened twelve restaurants in the Mainland China over the past three years. Its entry into the mainland market is 20 years late and its brand building and business expansion are far from good compared with its two competitors.

However, Burger King has advantages in the field of airport catering. Li Jiahui, general manager of SSP (Shanghai) Corporation, says that Burger King owns 11,000 chain restaurants around the world, among which 200 are opened in airports. In Hong Kong, there are four Burger King restaurants and three of them are at the airports.

The airport catering market has stable passenger traffic and relatively few competitors. With many years of operating experience in the airport fast food sector, Burger King is particularly concerned about this market. In the past, Burger King mainly focused on direct-managed restaurants in its development in the Mainland. However, its new restaurants take the franchisee mode. In regards to this change, Xiao Dewei explains that franchisee mode has always been the company's main mode. Across the globe, 90% of Burger King's restaurants are franchise restaurants. In the future, the company will develop direct-managed and franchise restaurants at the same time.