At the packed Airline Retail Conference Awards dinner last night near London Heathrow Airport, UK low-cost airline easyJet carried off two of the top prizes – for Best Airline for Inflight Retail (beating British Airways and Lufthansa to the title) and for Best Airline for Inflight F&B (beating KLM and BA).

 

One of duty free’s best known veteran’s Rakhita Jayawardena – who this year is celebrating 30 years in the inflight business – was also honoured as Airline Personality of the Year.

 

[Right: the easyJet team with one of their two awards.]

 

Inflight Sales Group took the award for Best Inflight Retail Concessionaire, triumphing over other finalists Lufthansa Worldshop and Gate Retail Onboard, while the Best Inflight Agent / Distributor went to Scorpio Worldwide which beat off strong competition from Germany’s Hanse Distribution and the UK’s McG Consultants.

 

[Rakhita Jayawardena (right) with organiser Ink Trade & Media Events Managing Director Colin Hall.]

 

Among the remaining four awards categories, which were voted on by a panel of experts during the ARC 2014 event in London, Best Inflight Product – Retail went to the Primate Mini-Speaker; Mornflake Cereal Superfast picked up the award for Best Inflight Product – Food; Tetley Tea was the Best Inflight Product – Beverage; and Best New Inflight Product went to travel pillow brand Cabeau.