A unique initiative between Heinemann Duty Free, Budapest Airport and Wizz Air has the potential to create €800,000 ($895,000) in additional Wizz Air Café onboard sales alone, according to partners involved in the BARTA initiative as revealed this morning during a session at the Future Travel Experience (FTE) conference in Dublin.

 

Of course Heinemann and Budapest Airport also expect to increase their respective revenues as a result of this same initiative and crucially footfall, penetration and conversion. [These figures are confidential at present].

 

In order to test the theory behind this initiative (at Budapest Airport), the partnership is planning to launch a three-month trial in the final quarter of this year. They hope to return early next year with an evaluation of the results of this trial.

 

As reported, major travel tech show FTE is supporting a new ‘Brands, Airlines, Retailers, Technology Providers and Airports’ (BARTA) test bed initiative at Budapest Airport (BUD) that seeks to exploit commercial relationships via technology to drive passenger spending, both onboard and on the ground.

 

 

HOW WILL IT WORK AND WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?
The new commercial partnership between Budapest Airport, Heinemann and Wizz Air to be trialled in Q4 will work as such: If a departing passenger at Budapest Airport spends €50-€75 at a Heinemann stores, they will receive a €4.50- €7.00 Wizz Air Café voucher.

 

Wizz Air and Budapest Airport will promote the offer digitally on passengers’ travel itinerary, flight reminders, boarding cards etc.

 

According to FTE and the partners involved in the BARTA initiative, 400,000 Wizz Air pax buy at Heinemann Budapest (around 20% of Wizz Air departing pax) and Heinemann estimates an annual 90,000 Wizz Air passengers will receive the vouchers.

 

ONLY THE BEGINNING…

“This is only the beginning,” says Ildikó Jankovich, Managing Director, Heinemann Hungary. “We have started to explore many opportunities for collaborative ways of working.”

 

Budapest Airport – part of the AviAlliance airports portfolio including Athens, Düsseldorf and Hamburg – claims a passenger throughput of more than 11 million and is the home base for top five European LCC Wizz Air.

 

The airport is regarded as a ‘stand-out retail location’ for global travel retailer, Heinemannt, which boasts 320 shops at 77 airports.

 

Wizz Air boasts a passenger base of more than 30m passengers.

 

More to follow on this story later on today.