Dufry celebrated the opening of its Toulouse Duty Free store yesterday evening (22 January) at Toulouse-Blagnac International Airport. The celebration was part of a wider inauguration of the airport’s completed extension and radical retail transformation.

The extension and retail revamp equips the airport to serve over 12m passengers, the number it expects to be processing in 2023, according to Bruno Balerdi, Non-Aeronautical Revenue Development Director, Aéroport Toulouse Blagnac (ATB) in an exclusive interview with TRBusiness.

Dufry’s 1,700sq m store opened in April 2018, offering passengers a strong sense of place with a seamless transition from the city to the airport in terms of design and a wide range of local products.

These are spread across a range categories including cosmetics, delicacies and wines exclusive to Dufry.

CELEBRATION TIME

To celebrate the airport’s inauguration, Toulouse Duty Free organised special regional wine, cheese, foie gras, chocolate and whisky tastings served by hostesses and surprised customers with acts from the ‘Urbanballers.’

The football freestylers (see the below video) showed off their tricks to music in a flashmob format. The performance ended with the reveal of their Toulouse Football Club t-shirts.

Pedro Castro, Division CEO for Southern Europe & Africa, Dufry commented: “It’s a pleasure to be here today to celebrate our Toulouse Duty Free joint project with ATB. Nine months in and we continue to be proud of the new coherent and integrated space we created as part of the passenger journey at this airport.

“For us, it symbolises the best practice we always aim to achieve with our airport partners. Thank you Philippe Crébassa [ATB Chairman of the Board] and all the ATB team for putting together this fantastic event.”