CANADA. Aer Rianta International (ARI) has opened two new shops in Ottawa airport’s new terminal, the latest advance to the retailer’s strong position in Canada.
“It’s a great new terminal,” said regional director retail operations Bill Maxwell.
And in a major development, he revealed that the company is in “very serious negotiations” for a five-year extension to its concession at Montreal Dorval airport, which is due to expire in 2006.
Montreal Mirabel airport closes in late 2004 with all traffic transferring to an extended and revamped Dorval.
ARI has a large trans-border shop serving US-bound traffic at Dorval and quadrupled the size of its main international shop recently. In the revamped airport it will have a large, new cash and carry store of around 13,000sq ft.
Meanwhile, the company is happy with the bid it tabled for one of North America’s key travel retailing contracts, at Toronto airport, where the tender closed last week. Success there would double the group’s retail sales in Canada, which currently stand at around US$60 million.
