Well-known industry figure, Adil Raïhani, Senior VP Center Management at Vienna International Airport, announced that he is leaving the airport to explore other business ventures in travel retail.

He made the announcement at an intimate dinner with the airport’s partners and friends on Wednesday night and he hinted to TRBusiness that these new ‘projects’ might involve other industry colleagues.

At the ‘Vienna Airport Evening’ Julian Jäger, a Vienna Airport Board member, spoke very highly of Raïhani, saying that he believed his Senior VP had put Vienna ‘on the airport retail map’. He also said that it will be a hard task to replace Raïhani in the next few months.

Raïhani himself said on the evening that the airport had endured some ‘rough years’ during his tenure, but that the company now exhibited ‘true partnership’. “I am not leaving the industry…I have some ideas and I am working on some things at the moment,” he said and suggested that he would return to Greece.

Raïhani talked to TRBusiness (one day prior to announcing his departure from the company) about reassessing the importance of high quality sales staff and he also shared his thoughts on the erosion of traditional partnerships within the industry – a topic on which he spoke very openly at the recent Trinity Conference.