TRBusiness is partnering with major travel tech show, Future Travel Experience, to support the BARTA airline-airport-brand-retailer digital engagement initiative, to be launched at FTE Ancillary in Dublin on 26-27 June, for which Ryanair is also a headline partner. (Reporting by Charlotte Turner).

 

BARTA, which stands for ‘Brands Airlines Retailers Technology Providers and Airports’, is an initiative which aims to harness digital technology and form new commercial relationships between stakeholders to drive passenger spending both at the airport and inflight.

 

TRBusiness has been appointed as the official media partner for the BARTA initiative and TRBusiness Managing Editor, Charlotte Turner, will chair the BARTA launch when the first concepts are unveiled at FTE Ancillary in Dublin on 27 June.

BARTA IN ACTION: BUDAPEST AIRPORT

FTE’s BARTA hopes to set itself apart from other events and initiatives with some concrete partnerships, ‘rather than creating a loose series of laudable ‘let’s all work together’ ideals and principles’, says the FTE.

 

“The event comes as airlines increasingly seek to become involved in new revenue streams designed to exploit their digital relationships with travellers,” adds FTE.

 

“Ryanair, which led the industry drive to online check-in, is especially interested in these new digital opportunities and Ryanair CEO, Michael O’Leary, will give a keynote presentation in Dublin.”

 

To develop real, tangible processes, BARTA has brought together a series of stakeholders, who are all present at Budapest Airport, with the aim of Budapest becoming the home and key test site for BARTA concepts. These stakeholders will be represented by:

 

• Chairman: Kam Jandu, Chief Commercial Officer, Budapest Airport
• Davit Mamulaishvili, Head of Revenue Development, Wizz Air
• Gebr. Heinemann (Senior Executive TBC)
• Nick Inkster, CEO Western Europe, Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Nordics, SSP Group
• Baptiste Beau, Strategic Business Development Director, L’Oréal Travel Retail
• Stephan Uhrenbacher, CEO, FLIO

 

“Budapest Airport is an ideal location for developing the BARTA cooperation with airlines,” says Daniel Coleman, Founder and Event Director, Future Travel Experience. “Having broken through the 11 million barrier last year, it is an airport of real scale which continues to grow at 10%-plus.”

 

“Everyone talks about the connected traveller but airlines are the glaring missing component in travel retail relationships.

 

“It is through airlines like Wizz Air that travellers become engaged in the first place, when they sit on the sofa booking their tickets. Airlines have 100% digital engagement from purchase to check-in, through to real-time flight status alerts etc.

 

“Whereas airports rely on far more patchy methods such as pre-booked car parking – mere sampling compared to airlines which have 100% digital connectivity with the passenger. The yield improvement that could be made if airport shopping stakeholders cooperated with airlines is mind-blowing.”

COOPERATION WITH AIRLINES

Wizz Air is the home-based and largest carrier at Budapest Airport, and one of the top-five low cost carriers in Europe, carrying 23 million passengers in 2016 (+19%).

Besides Heinemann and global F&B giant SSP, L’Oréal completes the line-up from the traditional airport retail space, while FLIO, which represents the most widely-used travel retail app in use at 900 airports, takes on the role of the technology partner for BARTA.

Talking to TRBusiness, Budapest Airport CCO Kam Jandu quantified some of the benefits which could come from new commercial relationships with airlines: “If we can work with the airlines, and benefit from their highly efficient connectivity with consumers, perhaps we can improve the sales growth from the 20% we have been seeing, and maybe add another 3-5% more.

“That’s a reasonable, conservative aspiration, but the value of that increase would be truly immense.”

Heinemann, which has a landmark presence in Budapest Airport’s SkyCourt, is also enthusiastic: “If BARTA leads to a common ‘success story’ including the airlines, it would, of course, be a great breakthrough for the business.” said Christoph Stump, Director Retail Sales.

 

For more information see http://www.futuretravelexperience.com/fte-ancillary/conference/ or contact [email protected].