Elena Stenholm, Vice President, Commercial Services for Finavia Corporation’s, Helsinki Airport, has confirmed to TRBusiness that although discussions with airport authority/government officials continue, it looks like ‘most’ of the commercial premises in the non-schengen extension of the airport’s terminal 2 will be tendered openly.

 

However, there will be some exceptions which will call for direct approaches to some particular brands or operators.

 

“There are certain exceptions based on specified passenger group needs in the non-schengen area; brands, concepts, operator specific expertise and current contracts.

 

In December, Stenholm told TRBusiness that the airport would be opening a satellite duty free store of about 300sq m near the West Wing of the airport, in quite a central location.

 

She also said that the airport was looking to tender this space in 2017, however, she was unsure at the time whether this would be an open tender (due to Government stipulations) or a direct invitational process.

DIRECT NEGOTIATIONS FOR DUTY FREE

“In the first commercial phase when building premises around Central Plaza, direct negotiations will take place for most of the retail (including duty free) whereas F&B units will be mostly tendered.”

 

“Commercial premises around Central Plaza will open to public in the beginning of 2019. However, these premises represent only a part of the upcoming new commercial area and major part will be opened approximately a year later.”

 

As reported, construction on Helsinki Airport’s new €300m ($334m) West Wing in Terminal 2 began in the last quarter of 2016 as part of a wider €900m airport expansion programme launched in 2013.

 

At the beginning of 2020, a completely new area serving air passengers will be completed in front of the current terminal.

 

The terminal expansion will in the future house the check-in, security control, baggage drop and an area for greeting passengers.

 

As the airport increases capacity, it must also bear in mind the needs of the growing number of Asian travellers. “Asian traffic has developed very strongly this spring with double-digit growth (+12.8%), as well as international transfer traffic (+11.7%). Chinese traffic has developed even stronger.”

 

Interestingly Stenholm also says that the airport enjoyed an ‘excellent commercial performance’ last year, exceeding its targets.

 

“2017 has been developing very well from Jan to Jun this year in tandem with the strong passenger growth, again exceeding our [expectations].”