Airports Council International (ACI) World and the Duty Free World Council (DFWC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to foster a closer strategic partnership for the training of front-line and management staff.

The strategic cooperation will include hosting DFWC Academy online training courses in ACI’s Online Learning Centre. The objective is to provide new staff training and advanced training for professionals in the aviation and maritime sectors and across a broad spectrum of travel retail brands — all accessible through the same platform.

ACI Global Training and the DFWC Academy will apply advanced training methods and modules to develop other joint education programmes that will benefit both organisations’ members.

The partnership will provide more opportunities for industry employees to access professional development and education, executive leadership, professional accreditation, subject-matter competency, and training courses.

ACI World Director General Luis Felipe de Oliveira said: “Around 60% of aviation jobs are at airports and airports recognise the importance of commercial activities as job generators, such as retail and duty free.

LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT ‘A KEY CONTRIBUTOR’

“The airport community recognises that learning and development — how staff are developed, how they work and how they are supported in their professional goals — is a key contributor to success and this partnership will help enrich this work.

“Working together with other organisations in our ecosystem will improve cooperation among the stakeholders and will help not only on the recovery of the industry but in forging the way forward into the future.”

DFWC President Sarah Branquinho says that learning and development will be more important than ever in the near future as the DF&TR industry recovers from the enforced closures and disruptions of the last 12 plus months.

“A lot of retail experience and expertise has, unfortunately, been lost and our industry will welcome many new staff members as stores re-open across all travel sectors, aviation and maritime.

“The provision of high-quality training programmes that will enable retail staff to deliver the best possible in-store experience for travellers and optimise revenues for our industries will be critically important.

“Our partnership with ACI on online training recognises the key role the duty free and travel retail industry plays in the broader aviation sector and reinforces an already strong and valuable co-operation.”