Airport retailers should ensure they have the international knowledge to thrive in the technology age rather than making comparisons to the local market, according to Vincent Harrison, MD of Dublin Airport.

Speaking to TRBusiness during Future Travel Experience (FTE) Ancillary, held at RDS, Dublin, he said: “The overall landscape has changed and airport retail needs to evolve with that, even the nature of the products on offer.

“I don’t think anyone is saying they will crack the formula. Whether it’s the growth of Amazon or online retailing, supply chain and branding – all of those things airports need to stay on top of to make sure they’ve got the international expertise as opposed to looking to their local market.

“A lot of the purchase comparisons are going to be made with the view to what is available across the world, rather than 10 or 20 years ago where people were looking at an airport compared to a downtown comparison as the primary benchmark.”

Striking the right balance between a destination-specific product assortment and more mass-available items is an evolving process, according to Harrison.

TECHNOLOGY PENETRATION ‘CHALLENGE’

Delegates attending a working panel session on day one of FTE heard about the way technologies can be used to leverage customer experiences and revenues opportunities during the passenger journey.

In a presentation, Harrison highlighted six years of consecutive growth at Dublin Airport, which handled 28m passengers in 2016.

The airport also expects to break records by registering 100,000 PAX per day over 30 days this summer, Harrison indicated.

He went on to explain that introducing new technologies into the airport environment, such as app-based services, can be a challenge when comparing similar success experienced in the local market.

“I think the number of apps that people actually use and download has to have a degree of frequency or association,” he added, emphasising the importance of digital advertising within terminals to target specific passenger routes or flows.

Turning to www.dublinairport.com, he said that while the site receives healthy traffic, it needed to be made mobile friendly.

Dublin Airport operator DAA posted revenue of €793m ($894m) last year – a +15% rise on 2015 – helped by growing PAX, improved commercial income and new overseas business.