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The Northern Capital Gateway Consortium is pushing ahead with construction on the new terminal at Pulkovo |
RUSSIA. The Northern Capital Gateway Consortium that operates St. Petersburg Pulkovo Airport is seeking Expressions of Interest from leading travel retailers in its duty free operations. The move comes as the operator pushes ahead with construction on a new terminal, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2013.
The request for Expressions of Interest was launched in recent days, and Northern Capital Gateway will then invite selected entrants to take part in a formal tender process, Deputy General Manager Andrea Pal confirmed to The Moodie Report.
“Based on set criteria, we will invite some of the parties willing to participate to make an offer,” Pal said. “The time line is depending on our internal corporate approvals (for each step) and the intention is to send the invitations to submit an offer on 6 July. [We plan] to finalise the contracts in October-November 2012.”
The consortium had previously said that it would introduce competition between concessionaires for the duty free business at the new terminal, though this may now not happen. The company said it would “choose the most profitable scenario”. The likelihood of it selecting a single retailer is increased by the fact that there is one major 1,600sq m walk-through duty free store planned, with one smaller satellite store closer to gates.
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A walk-through duty free store will lie at the heart of the commercial area |
The airport is modernising Terminal 1 as it builds the new terminal, with space at the airport set to treble overall.
The Northern Capital Gateway was the successful bidder for the public-private partnership to develop the airport, beginning in 2010. This consortium comprises VTB Capital, Fraport AG and Horizon Air Investments. The Design Solution handled the commercial planning at the new terminal.
Lenrianta and Gebr Heinemann currently operate the main duty free concessions at Pulkovo.
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