SAN ANTONIO — The world's first pizza vending machine is coming to the San Antonio International Airport.
The vending machine is actually an Automated Pizza Kitchen from Basil Street Pizza. The pizza kitchen serves brick-oven style pizza in just three minutes with the quick push of a button.
The innovative new machine was unveiled at an event at the airport Wednesday.
Airport officials say it's also serving to solve another current issue.
"We've had a hard time with hiring," said Jennifer Mills Pysher, Chief Commercial Officer for the San Antonio International Airport. "This will actually give our passengers and our employees hot food 24 hours a day, seven days a week and we couldn't be more happy to do it."
Mills Pysher said she expects to add even more automated food options in the future and it will be a priority for airport staff.
"Changing how we are doing vending at the airport is really important to my team. So what we are doing is...this is our first step," Mills Pysher said. "We are looking at other options. Do we want to put in a ramen machine, do we want to put in a fresh salad machine, fresh sandwiches, or other hot-type foods? So, we are open and willing to try anything so we are really excited to do that."
The pizza is made from fresh ingredients and then flash frozen. Airport officials say the vending machine is located in the food court of Terminal B and it is now open for airport guests and staff.