DFASS Singapore President, John Garner, confirmed to TRBusiness today that DFASS has extended its ‘long-term partnership’ with Singapore Airlines, which has been in existence for more than nine years.

 

As reported by TRBusiness.com, Singapore Airlines first awarded the contract to DFASS, to operate its inflight duty free programme (including the Silk Air Sky Shop cabin sales service), in 2006, after several months of deliberation.

 

Garner did not divulge how long the original contract length was ‘as these details are extremely confidential’, but he did tell TRBusiness that DFASS have entered into another ‘long-term contract’ with the airline.

 

“Singapore Airlines is one of the largest airlines in Asia and has a very substantial duty free business,” Garner told TRBusiness. “The award recognises the strength of the partnership between the airline and DFASS Singapore.”

 

TRBusiness asked Garner if DFASS was confident going into the ‘very competitive process’, as he described it. “It’s always a mistake to be over confident,” he said, but added that on the company’s past performance its case was strong.

As reported, Singapore-based publishing house SPH Magazines’ recently won the contract to publish inflight shopping magazines for DFASS Group, and has recently relaunched KrisShop (Singapore Airlines) and SkyShop (SilkAir).

DFASS, which will be offering pre-order, air-to-home and international mail-order services to the airline as part of its renewed partnership, was asked by TRBusiness just how important these services have become to the inflight retail business.

 

“They are becoming more important, but they’re still not the core of the business,” said Garner, pointing out that it’s easier to sell to passengers in a seat on the flight rather than convince them to use a pre-order service.

 

As has been well documented, Singapore has suffered from a drop in tourist numbers in Q4 2014 and Q1 2015 [hit by the two MAS flight tragedies] with Changi Airport reporting weak overall traffic, down -0.9% in the quarter to March.

 

However, Garner says that DFASS has not seen a change to the passenger numbers on its Singapore-based carriers. In fact he says that the company has enjoyed growth in the number of its airline partners in Asia and has experienced passenger growth as well.