Sweden’s state-owned airports operator Swedavia, last week bought the remaining shares in the commercial joint venture ASDC (Arlanda Schiphol Development Company) which were owned by Netherlands-based Schiphol International.

 

Before the deal, Swedavia had a 60% stake in the JV, with Schiphol International holding the other 40%. The new 100% Swedavia-owned company is called Arlanda Development Company.

 

ASDC’s CEO Roel Huinink, will remain in his role until 30 June with successor Magnus Ros, Head of Commercial Services at Swedavia, taking over as CEO from 1 July.

 

The move comes at a time when Swedavia is “adjusting operations in various steps” as it fine-tunes its commercial offer in preparation for significant traffic growth at Stockholm Arlanda Airport (ARN). The gateway handled 20.7m passengers last year, up +5.1% which easily outpaced all other major Nordic airports.

 

Swedavia’s retail, food & beverage net revenue hit SEK 477m ($72m) in the nine months to September 2013, up from SEK 456m ($68.5m) in the same period in 2012.

 

 

 

Commenting on the deal, Karl Wistrand, Executive Vice President at Swedavia, says: “The expertise that Schiphol has brought into ASDC has been instrumental when building the commercial offer at Stockholm Arlanda Airport and Gothenburg Landvetter Airport over the years.

 

“This new agreement is a natural consequence of organisational changes within Swedavia with an increased focus on our commercial business. We also want to leverage synergies with our other operations as well as strengthen long-term customer satisfaction.”

 

Since 2005, ASDC has been developing the retail and F&B offer at Stockholm Arlanda – and at Göteborg Landvetter since 2010. Over this period important commercial strides at ARN have included developments in Terminal 5 (lead image top) and, in the past year alone, the renovation of 40 shops, services and F&B outlets, particularly the new Terminal 2 and SkyBridge.

 

ASDC also achieved a milestone in its expansion with the completion of the redevelopment of the international departure hall in 2013 at Göteborg Landvetter.