Airport shopping to be expanded

Retailing was "stood on its head" by the loss earlier this year of duty free - but fresh opportunities will arise when the new terminal at Dublin opens next June, adding 7,500 sq ft of shopping space to the existing 20,000 sq ft at the airport, says Aer Rianta. Meanwhile, an additional 2,600 sq ft of retail space will become available at Shannon. And there is the possibility of a new retail village at Dublin airport.

According to Albert Baker, retail concessions manager of Aer Rianta, "the loss of duty free is dramatic in the sense that the majority of travellers at Dublin Airport are intra-EU".

Total passenger numbers at Dublin airport are 13 million. Of these, 6.5 million are departures - the main shopping population. Intra-EU travel accounts for 85 per cent of departures from Dublin. In Cork, 90 per cent of travellers are intra-EU, while in Shannon the figure is 50 to 52 per cent.

Aer Rianta runs its own direct retailing, selling the "traditional core subjects of duty free liquor, tobacco and perfume", with specialist retailers renting other areas. Aer Rianta is currently considering what to do with the new retail space that will become available with the terminal extension. The company now has its, albeit smaller, duty free business for passengers to places like the US, Turkey and the Canary Islands. "That's a business that we have to make sure we nurture and prosper and grow again," Mr Baker says. As for new specialist retailing, from next summer, Aer Rianta is evaluating what its consumers want. The new space will essentially be for airport travellers - known as "air-side" customers.

But there is "never enough space. And we make sure that it suits the environment because there are restrictions and limitations on what you can sell." The basic restrictions are physical. "You can only sell something to somebody that they're able to carry with them on to an aeroplane. You can't sell them a television set."

You're effectively selling "convenience". "There's a very strong business traveller community that may not take the time to go to the city, to the shopping centre, if the right merchandise is available to them here. And for that reason we'd be looking at broadening our horizons in the kind of things that we would probably offer." For example, the airport doesn't offer shoe retailing or a gents' fashion shop.

Another constraint at the airport is that you only have your passengers for a very short period of time, from 15 to 25 minutes. "So you have a short period of time, you have a convenience element and you have a physical size restriction." Aer Rianta "will probably nominate what it is we want to sell, having looked at our research. And then we go to public tender." Aer Rianta expects to go to tender for the new retail development at the end of this year or early next year. The number of units to be made available next summer has not yet been decided. The company is also preparing to go to tender for additional shops in Shannon on foot of a terminal extension there. "We'll be tendering for that before this year is out," he says.

Aer Rianta is also considering a retail village or retail park away from the terminal at Dublin airport. Mr Baker expects the construction of the retail village to start within the next 18 months.