Lagardère Travel Retail opens Aelia Duty Free and Relay at Libreville Airport

GABON. Lagardère Travel Retail has opened its first Aelia Duty Free and Relay shops at Libreville Leon Mba International Airport, after striking an agreement last December. In the first phase, the company has opened 600sq m of retail space.

The Aelia Duty Free store houses a broad range of international brands alongside destination merchandise from Gabon, says the retailer.

Later, the airport will house all three Lagardère Travel Retail business lines – duty free & fashion, travel essentials and foodservice – with a food outlet to open in the summer.

Lagardère Travel Retail Managing Director Africa Bruno Bouchacourt said: “We are very pleased with these openings that demonstrate our ability to bring the best international operational standards to Africa, while developing a very strong and successful local offer. This is yet another important milestone in Lagardère Travel Retail’s journey towards new successes in Africa.”

The Lagardère Travel Retail team marks the store debut; this is the first phase of a wider expansion, which will include a new airport from 2021.

Libreville Leon Mba International Airport is the only international airport in Gabon and a key location for air traffic in Western Africa and Europe. A new airport will open by 2021 with capacity for five million passengers a year. The new airport will cover an area of 12sq km with a built area of 35,000sq m on three floors, and a capacity of two million passengers a year in the first phase. The space allocated to Lagardère Travel Retail in the new airport will be over 1,000sq m.

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