More than 250 delegates were up bright and early for the second day of the 2006 Middle East Duty Free Conference (MEDFA) in Dubai today where the first subject on the morning programme was arguably

the most important focus of the entire conference. Entitled ‘Airport Security’.
This was addressed by a panel comprising Sarah Branquinho, Business Relations Director, BAA; Dan Cappell, General Manager Operations ARI-ME; Ramesh Cidambi, Director IT & Logistics, Dubai Duty Free; and Ramzi Ghosn, Ceo, Massaya Wines. The session moderator was John Hume, a Partner in the Hume Brophy Communications firm that is also directly involved in lobbying the EU Commission on behalf of ETRC.
Hume opened the subject by saying that it had been appropriately called the biggest threat to this industry and he called on the audience not to leave the room until they fully understood the gravity of the issue.
Branquinho, who has worked tirelessly on this issue began by asking whether everyone was on the same page on this issue, despite extensive communication by the European Travel Retail Council (ETRC) and the trade press.
She said everyone had their own views on whether the security measures are proportionate or not, but the fact remains that they are here to say. Had the ETRC not acted quickly then airport retailing as a whole could have been under threat. Branquinho said retailing was secondary and the measures brought in by the Commission were not negotiable, but she paid tribute to the efforts of John Hume as helping fast track the ETRC's access to senior Commission officials.
Branquinho said the regulations she was about to describe would also affect all non EU airports when the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) sends out this recommendation on December 1.
Branquinho took the audience through all of the changes in Europe which have been described on these pages many times before, including the circumstances under which liquid/gel-based products are confiscated by security officials.
She said that this week ICAO has been meeting and they have been debating this problem. Everyone at ICAO has since agreed that the EU regulations will become the global standard and Branquinho said only Singapore formally asked for an exemption for airside retail.
She said national governments needed to be lobbied and informed of the financial impact that this is going to have. She said mutual recognition of security procedures between countries was very necessary and this was echoed by Hume who said that without lobbying we could be looking at an industry that will no longer be able to sell to transit passengers.Hume turned to ARIME's Cappell who confirmed that the initial indications were that at ARIME it was costing the operation between $15,000 to $20,000 a day.
Ramesh Cidambi said DDF has actually been dealing with three issues and one is the restrictions from Air India imposed on August 20 where the carrier would not carry any duty free. Only recently has this situation improved as the transit problem has arrived. At its height, he said the security restrictions and the Air India scenarios were costing DDF between $5,000 and $10,000. But this has eased now that DDF operates a gate delivery system for Air India's passengers. (DDF's liquor business is currently worth $185m a year, with 40% sold through its arrivals shops).
Aer Rianta International Middle East (ARIME) Managing Director John Sutcliffe said he is also worried that legitimate passengers who are not affected by the transit problem are also not buying because they think their purchases will be confiscated. He said we have to deal with this problem since it has a much broader implication.
Patrick Moran of Brown Forman paid tribute to the ETRC's work to date, but added that he sees this as the most serious threat to the business so far, because of its international nature. Moran asked Branquinho about the US and EU situation and she said the sealed bag was now going forward for approval to the EU prior to being presented to the TSA for its adoption.
The point was also made that some retailers are still selling to customers when they should know that the goods will be confiscated at the transit point. Cappell said that his company's store staff were informing passengers who planned to transfer that they could well have their purchases confiscated. He said this advice was being received gratefully by passengers and it was essential if the operator's credibility was to be preserved.
At the same time, Abu Dhabi Duty Free's Niveen Ibrahim asked whether ground handlers couldn't be included in these discussions to find other solutions to this transit problem.
World Duty Free's Mark Riches warned of chaos: ‘Confusion is the biggest enemy that we have. We have to accept that our industry has changed,’ he said. Riches said he agreed with pursuing the sealed bag solution, but he added that retailers also have a responsibility to be honest with the customer.
‘To allow a customer to buy products which are going to be confiscated means that customer has gone forever,’ he said. At the same time Riches said that gate deliveries were not a solution in his view, after these were tested at Heathrow Terminal 3 immediately after the August 10 regulations came in.
He described gate deliveries as a nightmare since it was often not possible to get the product to the gate in time, so the passenger is just let down again. Riches concluded that to eliminate confusion there should be one tamper-proof sealed bag uniformly processed through every airport.