JAPAN. Tokyo International Air Terminal (TIAT) is to expand the duty free store in the Central zone of its International Terminal by 200sq m, with beauty to be the big beneficiary.
The TIAT Duty Free store (the largest at the airport) will take floor space from an adjacent café that has been closed. It will feature enhanced areas for cosmetics, notably Kiehl’s, MAC and L’Occitane, which are currently housed in a stand-alone store down the corridor. This space in turn will be upgraded to include Chanel and Hermès boutiques.
The project is expected to begin in May and be completed by early 2019, TIAT told The Moodie Davitt Report during a visit to Haneda Airport on Wednesday.
TIAT will work on the project in partnership with JATCo, which is the biggest of 13 shareholders in TIAT and through its duty free division helps service the airport’s retail operations.
In related news, the planned switch of international capacity across to the domestic terminal (T2) at Haneda will bring a big increase in duty free space by 2020.
TIAT plans to add 1,400sq m of duty free space in an extension to what is currently the domestic terminal. Details of how the space will be configured and the category layout have yet to be agreed.
The move is related to Haneda’s status as a vital part of the government’s drive to increase overseas visitor arrivals from 28 million in 2017 to 40 million by 2020 – the year that Tokyo hosts the Summer Olympic Games.
Haneda will receive another 39,000 slots per year from 2020, or around 50 more flights per day. To manage this growth, international capacity is being moved to T2.
*Full details and comment on Haneda Airport’s plans for expansion, featuring interviews with TIAT and JATCo, will appear in our May Print and Interactive editions.
