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Vienna Airport’s quirky nine-month results presentation is packed with the latest financial information |
AUSTRIA. Flughafen Wien (Vienna Airport) has posted a +9.2% year-on-year increase in retail and food & beverage (gastronomy) revenues for the nine-month period ended 30 September.
Total non-aviation revenues rose +16.2% rise in the periof to €96.5 million. This was driven by higher income from security controls, rentals, shops and gastronomy, and parking.
EBIT recorded by the non-aviation segment increased +15.4% to €32.8 million and its EBITDA by +13.4% to €49.3 million.
Vienna International Airport handled a total of 14,043,370 passengers during the nine months, an increase of +9.4% year-on-year. Traffic to the Middle East rose by a strong +16.9%, while Vienna’s excellent market position in East European air travel was strengthened by an increase of +22.1% in passenger volume related to the region.
The low-cost carriers again recorded above-average growth with a year-on-year gain of +47.1% in the number of passengers handled during the period. Their share of the total passenger volume at Vienna International Airport now stands at 17.4%.
The strong traffic growth during the first nine months of 2007 was matched by a strong October. “From the current point of view, this trend will also continue throughout 2008,” Flughafen Wien said.
Those sorts of numbers will be whetting the commercial appetites of the bidders for the core duty free and travel retail concessions at Vienna Airport’s new Skylink Terminal which opens around mid-2009.
As revealed by The Moodie Report earlier this week Gebr Heinemann, The Nuance Group, Dufry and local retailer Sardana (with support from Aer Rianta International) are the bidders on the various “˜lots’. These include the two largest – duty free and a “˜Best of Austria’ section – plus fashion, luxury goods and others. In total there are 52 units (33 retail and 19 food & beverage) on offer across 10,000sq m of space in both Schengen and non-Schengen areas. Management consultancy AT Kearney is handling the tender process.
In the next stage AT Kearney and Vienna Airport will draw up a shortlist and bidders will then be invited to present their plans for the business in a second phase. Vienna Airport expects to conclude the process by the end of this year.
The airport issued over 300 tender documents to invited bidders for all of its spaces. For the core duty free Gebr Heinemann, The Nuance Group and Sardana, each of which have existing retail interests at the airport, took up the invitation to bid, as did Dufry.
The new units cover three levels of the new terminal and will add +76% more retail and food & beverage space to the airport, taking the total space for these services to 19,700sq m.
Construction began on the €400 million project in 2005. Work on the interior began earlier this year and will be completed in the third quarter of 2008, before Skylink goes into operation around the middle of 2009.
MORE STORIES ON VIENNA AIRPORT
Vienna Airport Skylink Terminal tender attracts heavyweight travel retail field – 14/11/07
Retail and food & beverage growth contributes to Vienna Airport’s robust H1 results – 23/08/07
Vienna Airport launches retail and food & beverage mega-tender for new Skylink Terminal – 16/07/07
Commercial revenues to the fore as Vienna Airport posts strong first-quarter results – 25/05/07
