Aer Rianta International wins duty free contract at Delhi airport

AER RIANTA International (ARI), the Shannon-based airport retail specialist, has landed a lucrative 15-year contract to operate a duty free shop at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi.

ARI was named yesterday as the preferred bidder for the multimillion-euro contract, which will see the Irish company and a local group operate a 4,000sq m outlet in Delhi’s new Terminal 3 facility.

The building will open next year in time for Delhi’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games and has been designed to handle up to 34 million passengers a year. This marks ARI’s first foray into India and builds on its existing retail operations in Russia, North America and the Middle East.

Set up in 1988, ARI is a subsidiary of the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA). It is one of the world’s biggest operators of airport duty free shops and contributed about €25 million of the DAA’s overall profits in 2008.

The Delhi shop will sell the core range of duty free products such as alcohol and tobacco, perfume and cosmetics, and confectionary.

ARI bid for the contract with a local company called Indian Duty Free Services. The pair will form a joint venture with Delhi International Airport Ltd (Dial), which manages the Indian airport. The ARI-led group will own 51 per cent of this joint venture.

Commenting on the contract win, ARI director general Eamon Foley said: “We are delighted to have been selected as the preferred bidder for the proposed new duty free outlet in Delhi. This is ARI’s first move into the Indian subcontinent and we look forward to bringing our retail offer to the new Terminal 3.”

According to Dial, which is part owned by German airport manager Fraport, ARI tabled the best financial offer for the concession and it also submitted the best technical bid.

Dial said ARI had a “proven record of operating joint-venture duty-free concessions in European and emerging markets which have yielded good results for all stakeholders. It has been successfully operating joint-venture models at Moscow airport duty-free on a 21-year contract and at Bahrain airport on a 16-year contract.”

Four other groups bid for the contract: the Dufry-Interglobe consortium, Flemingo International, Setur and Aldeasa. Dehli’s Terminal 3, still under construction, will handle all international traffic and some domestic flights.