SPAIN. The new Terminal 3 at Pablo Ruiz Picasso Airport in Malaga, which opened earlier this month, represents a step change in quality for one of Spain’s most important tourist gateways.
The Moodie Report was on location at the Andalucían airport this week to view the airport and, in particular, Spanish travel retailer Aldeasa’s extensive offer.
Our conclusions, which will also include coverage of the extensive specialist retail offer (where another Spanish company, Ãreas, is particularly prominent) and food & beverage operations (led by SSP’s 12 outlets), will be featured in a special edition of The Moodie Report PLUS early next month.
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Today’s Picture Gallery report focuses on the visual quality of the commercial offer, which is housed in a stunning Bruce S. Fairbanks-designed terminal that is characterised by abundant natural light, panoramic views of the airstrips and mountains beyond. Fairbanks created the 250,000sq m building as a vast, continuous canopy, using a “˜curtain glass wall’ between the atrium and check-in to provide maximum transparency.
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Pedro Castro on Aldeasa’s Malaga makeover |
Such a spectacular arena demands a high-quality commercial offer and in most cases airport authority AENA and its business partners seem to have got it right.
Certainly they don’t fail for lack of ambition – or scale. Aldeasa’s offer includes the Autogrill subsidiary’s largest single outlet, The Shop, covering 2,300sq m. That flagship store houses a range of traditional duty free items, and includes a spectacular 900sq m beauty section. Nearby stands a 300sq m Lacoste boutique – the fashion and accessory brand’s largest airport boutique in the world.
The design of the stores follows a similar approach to Fairbanks’ terminal design, highlighted by a vivid combination of black and white, blended to great effect with Aldeasa’s hallmark yellow.
New zones include Thinking Andalucía, a concept focused on local products inspired by the culture of Andalucía, once again underlining Aldeasa’s admirable insistence on championing the notion of Sense of Place.
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The Bruce S. Fairbanks-designed terminal makes fabulous use of natural light. Terminal 3 (above and below) is built like a vast, continuous canopy, featuring a glass curtain wall to provide maximum transparency for airport users |
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DRAMATIC, OPEN SHOP FRONTAGE, GREAT SIGHT LINES
Two abiding impressions of Aldeasa’s main store resonate from our visit. One is the 60m of open shop frontage, allowing passengers to enter and exit the store at several points. Visually it’s stunning, right up there with the world’s most memorable travel retail panoramas and a suitable complement to the architectural vibrancy of the terminal.
The second is the use of colour inside The Shop. As mentioned, black and white is used to striking effect both on the floors and ceiling but it’s the sheer vitality of the yellow, predominantly in the beauty department, that makes this outlet so memorable.
Aldeasa has hung yellow canopies over a personalised section of the perfumes & cosmetics section and it works brilliantly. The thrilling colours are accentuated by the superb sight lines through the shop – despite the size of the store, one can see from one side to the other without obstruction from over-sized fittings or personalised units.
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Gemma Yela Gancho, Commercial Director for airport authority AENA, told The Moodie Report: “We’ve introduced a lot of new shops whereas previously the commercial offer was reduced because there was no space. Our old commercial area was right out of the passenger flow. The philosophy here was to create more comfort for the passengers.
“We also had to produce a special kind of offer due to our particular traffic profile – especially our English traffic, who are 45% of passengers. So we did a lot of studies into their needs and those of our other passengers. That is why we have different brands such as Lacoste, Adolfo Dominguez and National Geographic.
“With food & beverage we knew we had to improve the quality. So we introduced different brands based on good prices and good quality.”
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(Left to right): Pedro Castro, Aldeasa Director of National Operations (Spain); Gemma Yela Gancho, AENA Commercial Director; and José Luna Vidal, Aldeasa Regional Director South Zone outside Aldeasa’s flagship outlet, The Shop |
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Pedro Castro, Aldeasa Director of National Operations (Spain); Olga Pardo, Aldeasa Global Category Manager Perfumes & Cosmetics; Gemma Yela Gancho, AENA Commercial Director; and José Luna Vidal, Aldeasa Regional Director South |
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Steering a retail success story: Aldeasa’s Pedro Castro tests out the Lacoste golf buggy |
Aldeasa Director of National Operations Pedro Castro told The Moodie Report: “Malaga is one of our iconic touristic airports. It’s really in the DNA of Aldeasa – to work with this kind of passenger profile in a touristic country like Spain you have to give them the right offer.
“Here we have enough space to give passengers the opportunity to find destination products and core categories in a very quick way, so that we can cope with the big amount of people that concentrate here, especially in the high season.”
More details – and video coverage – coming soon. For details on The Moodie Report PLUS, out next month, please contact Martin Moodie at Martin@TheMoodieReport.com
Click on the icon above to access highlights of the unique ‘flash mob’ show from Aldeasa and Puig that celebrated the T3 opening |
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