Major Canary Islands’ retailer Canariensis and Aldeasa-WDF opened a 265sq m shop at La Palma Airport’s new terminal yesterday, with a special area set aside for promoting and selling local products called ‘Thinking Canarias’.

This offers travellers a selection of prominently displayed local rums, wines and liqueurs typical of La Palma, as well as the best ‘mojos’ and a selection of local sweets and confectionery products. The bright yellow shop fascia carries the name ‘Canariensis’ with the characteristic Aldeasa curved arrow icon, although the outlet is simply called DUTY FREE SHOP.

The store itself consists of a square interior, with product shelving units lining all three walls as seen from the entrance, plus free standing floor units and a small circular promotion/tasting area at the back. It also boasts ‘The best brands at the best prices’ in both English and Spanish on the exterior of the store.

TERMINAL CAPACITY DOUBLED
Meanwhile, this new terminal now has an annual capacity of three million passengers, which is more than double the previous facility. This should be more than adequate – at last in the short term – considering La Palma handled 992,363 passengers last year – a decline of -4.9% on 2009. 
[Total traffic was also down by -9.4% to 1,043,274 in 2009 and down by -4.7% to 1,151,357 in 2008-Ed].

La Palma is currently the 19th busiest airport in Spain and so far this year it has handled 430,384 passengers between January and May (+7.3%). This store opening is obviously timely ahead of the busy summer season months of June, July and August in particular.

Angeles Montesdeoca, General Manager of Canariensis said that the new shop would both reinforce the promotion of the Canary Islands and the commercial development at the Canarian airports.

The Canariensis company is majority-owned by Aldeasa-WDF (60%) and the local Canarian company Canresa, or Canarias de Retailing Aeroportuario S.A. (40%). 

For its part, Canariensis is a major airport retail operator in the Spanish autonomous community of the Canary Islands, currently operating 22 shops at the airports of Gran Canaria, Tenerife Norte, Tenerife Sur, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and La Palma.