Our daily feature celebrates memorable scenes, moments, launches and campaigns from the global aviation and travel retail sphere.
Since (and even before) it opened in April 2019, Istanbul Airport has been among the most talked about projects in the aviation world. The scale of ambition of operator IGA, Turkish Airlines and key partners such as Unifree Duty Free, Gebr Heinemann, Tum & Ictur and others has resounded around the industry – and prompted many visits from curious airports, retailers and brands to see this spectacular new global hub.
The Moodie Davitt Report’s visit this week coincided with one of those high-level delegations, from Gebr Heinemann and senior figures from the German airports industry, who visited Unifree Duty Free offices before taking a tour of the terminal.
We were delighted to meet German Airports Association (ADV) Managing Director Ralph Beisel, Head of Legal and Commercial Affairs Jan Ambrosius, Head of Economic and Commercial Affairs Bernhard Persch as well as Munich Airport Managing Director Andrea Gebbeken, along with Gebr Heinemann Director Corporate Affairs Dr. Jennifer Cords.
They were hosted by Unifree Duty Free CEO Ali Şenher, COO Vural Ulus and Director Business Development Sinan İşçimenler. Şenher shared a presentation about the development of the travel retail business in this market, highlighting some vivid comparisons between Atatürk Airport and Istanbul Airport. Afterwards, the group made an in-depth tour of the airport’s retail spaces.
Ali Şenher said: “1,000 brands under one roof, 53,000sq m of commercial space and all this at an airport with a current capacity of up to 90 million passengers per year: Istanbul Airport boasts many superlatives and offers travellers a completely new definition of travel retail. We are very proud of what we have achieved along with our partners over the past years and it was thus a great pleasure to welcome representatives from ADV and share our experience with them.”
Ralph Beisel said: “We are deeply impressed by the airport’s architecture and its retail concept with an innovative centre management model. The fact that some foreigners come to Istanbul for a day trip just to enjoy the duty free sales area at the airport is outstanding – but with these facilities it is no surprise. This is a perfect example of how excellent retail concepts directly support modern passenger hubs.”
From its headquarters in Hamburg, Germany, Gebr Heinemann has close ties with the German Airports Association, which brings benefits in networking, industry skills and monitoring of industry policies and trends.
Jennifer Cords said: “Istanbul Airport was the perfect site for our get-together. The international hub is bringing people and brands from all around the globe together each day. Unifree’s hospitality and their openness to welcome a foreign airports association across borders underlines this fact. We all have one mutual goal: to share our expertise to serve the common purpose to protect and promote the global market place of duty free.”
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