AUSTRALIA. A stellar speaker line up has been assembled for one of the critical sessions at the upcoming Australian Airports Association Retail & Commercial Forum – Allocating Contractual Risk in a Post-COVID World.
To be held at the QT Hotel on the Gold Coast on 20-21 July, the Forum will bring together airports and commercial operators across all non-aeronautical revenue streams including duty free, specialty retail, F&B, car parking, car rental, ground transport, advertising, property and hotels. The event is a joint endeavour between the Australian Airports Association, The Moodie Davitt Report and The Mercurius Group, with Gold Coast Airport as the host.
The session noted above, scheduled for the first morning of the conference (20 July), will be moderated by The Mercurius Group’s Ivo Favotto, who is also involved in redefining contracts across multiple airports. It brings together large and small airports as well as retail and car rental operators to give a 360-degree perspective of the crucial topic of contractual risk in the new era.
The confirmed line-up includes:
- Sydney Airport General Manager Commercial Leasing & Asset Management Mark Zaouk
- Airport Development Group Head of Business Development – Interstate and International Shane De Wit
- Lagardère AWPL CEO Costa Kouros
- Hertz Property Manager APAC Alex Pyrlis
Mark Zaouk said: “The COVID crisis hit airports just as hard as concessionaires and for gateway airports like SYD we remain a long way from normal on international passenger traffic. That said, a pragmatic approach was adopted during COVID but risk and reward go together, so if we re-allocate risk, we should re-allocate reward as well.”
Costa Kouros said: “The past two years have brought unprecedented impacts on our industry. This has forced all great travel retailers to examine what we did in the past, to restructure our operating model and reimagine the future. We simply must be better than we ever were.”
Shane De Wit said: “As a regional airport, both retail and car rental are critical for us. We know and understand that we are remote from major population areas and so our mission is to make it as easy as possible to do business at our airports in Darwin and Alice Springs. We value highly our commercial partners and we work hard with them to help us generate critical revenue.”
Alex Pyrlis added: “The COVID period was a very challenging period for car rental operators and while the approach to contractual risk adopted was different airport-by-airport it also highlighted the value (when lost for the first time) of the each airport patron/traveller. But COVID has sparked an important conversation that we must now have about how we allocate risk between parties going forward.”
Ivo Favotto said: “Allocating contractual risk has been a hot topic over the past two COVID-influenced years. The collapse of passenger traffic and the financial impact of airports and concessionaires has forced everyone to carefully consider how to allocate risk.
“But there have been many different approaches adopted and of course different perspectives. The key question now as we transition from relief arrangements to the new normal is, does the allocation of commercial risk and reward change going forward?”
He added: “The panel we have put together to speak to this topic is well placed to addressed these questions, having been right at the centre of such discussions over the past two years. In addition to the airport perspective, I am delighted that we can get both a retail perspective and a car rental perspective.
“Lagardère AWPL is one of the biggest and broadest travel retailers in the business, covering duty free, specialty and F&B, while Hertz is one of the biggest car rental operators across Australia and globally. For many airports, car rental is just as important as retail, if not more so, as a revenue driver.”
More announcements on other sessions and speakers will appear soon.
Event registration is open now. Just 200 places are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
As reported, the Forum is a celebration of survival and resilience for the airport commercial sector as well as an opportunity for airports of all sizes to better understand how to improve non-aeronautical revenues.
