The board of directors of Aena, the Spanish airport operator, has extended Dufry’s current duty-free contract for up to five years.
The newly extended contract, which covers 25 Spanish airports, will be operational after the expiry of the current concession agreement, which ends on October 31, 2020. It has an initial duration of three years with the option to extend in two steps of one year at a time, in parallel with the investment program to be implemented by Aena. The maximum extent of the contract will be to October 31, 2025.
Dufry will implement and roll out to other airports the commercial initiatives and best practices already launched and tested across five pilot airports (Barcelona T2, Malaga, Alicante-Elche, Gran Canaria and Bilbao) since June 2018, in a bid to identify and implement actions to improve commercial performance. These initiatives included pricing policy, improvement of shop design and layout, assortment and brand optimization, marketing and digital partnership actions, as well as sales staff incentives.
Julían Díaz, CEO of Dufry Group, said, “We are convinced that the extension and the even closer cooperation of our local teams will increase revenues and profitability for both partners. This will allow us to support Aena in its upcoming important investment program to further develop the Spanish airport infrastructure.”