COMMENT Recovery in Israel anything but easy


Now and Then... A


story on the front cover of the December


2000 edition of The Duty Free Business revealed that Israel Airports Authority (IAA) had delayed a major duty free tender at Tel Aviv Ben Gurion


International Airport. The same article also confirmed that the


construction of Terminal 3 was about half completed when work was halted on the facility’s airside building in September 2000. This was due to the financial collapse of the construction firm’s Turkish parent Ceylan. Yoram Shapira, Deputy Director General,


Commerce and Business Development said the tender, which was due to be issued in late December 2000 or early January 2001, would only be delayed by a few months. Tenders and terminal openings always


represent significant challenges, but pale in comparison with trying to mitigate against the impact of a pandemic, namely Covid-19. Coming to terms with the impact of


Covid-19 has been the main focus for Shapira and his team for much of the year, but the situation in Israel has not made things easy. In an online TRBusiness interview,


Shapira predicted a slow recovery across IAA’s commercial and aviation business. His pessimistic outlook was unsurprising,


given that only a small number of food and beverage outlets were open. All other shops, including the duty free outlets operated by long-standing incumbent JR/Duty Free had been closed since mid-March. Foreign nationals (unless they were citizens


or residents of Israel) were also forbidden to enter the country from 18 March, which coincided with a government order to close all non-essential public places across Israel. Shapira said: “The reality is that the world


cannot survive without aviation. You cannot block countries and you cannot block people. We will either find a way to live with the virus or the world will solve the problem. In December 2000, Shapira was facing


the prospect of a delayed duty free tender and being unable to open the airport’s new Terminal 3 as planned on 1 July 2002 – the facility eventually opened in 2004. Today, he is having to contend with a


46 TRBUSINESS


TRBusiness is independently and equally owned by Nigel Hardy and Janice Hook. It is available on a subscription package basis only and is published by TRBusiness Ltd every month.


TRBUSINESS 16 The Warren, Worcester Park, Surrey, KT4 7DL. Tel: +44 (0) 20 8330 9444 Fax: +44 (0) 20 8330 9449


EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Charlotte Turner Tel: + 44 (0) 1252 719078 E-mail: charlotte@trbusiness.com


ACTING MANAGING EDITOR: Luke Barras-Hill Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7610 2782 E-mail: luke@trbusiness.com


SENIOR EDITOR: Andrew Pentol Tel: + 44 (0) 20 8593 8066 E-mail: andrew@trbusiness.com


Oslo Airport’s tenders was the lead item in the December 2000 edition.


number of potentially game-changing issues that take on a whole new significance. The aforementioned ban on foreigners


entering the country, for example, is likely to remain until at least 1 January 2021 (exceptions apply). Although understandable, this is a major concern for IAA. It has been forced to deal with the


consequences of a significant drop in traffic, which in turn has decimated the commercial business. A framework for allowing tourists to enter


the country by mid-October was supposed to be in place, but never materialised. This was because a second lockdown further limited travel in and out of Israel. The drop in traffic also prompted the


closure of Terminal 1 in March, which only resumed operations for arriving and departing international and domestic passengers in June 2017. As the calendar year draws to a close,


IAA is continuing to support its retail and commercial tenants. “When the recovery does start, we will


have to adapt the contract conditions of our tenants, particularly in the first six months,” according to Shapira. “This is because things will not return to normal overnight”. «


JOINT MANAGING DIRECTOR: Nigel Hardy Tel: +44 (0) 1883 623020 E-mail: nigel@trbusiness.com


JOINT MANAGING DIRECTOR: Janice Hook Tel: +44 (0) 20 8330 9444 E-mail: janice@trbusiness.com


INT. SALES & MARKETING DIRECTOR: Ben Webb Tel: +44 (0) 1732 760827 E-mail: ben@trbusiness.com


EVENTS & CSR: Michael Barrett Tel: +61 487 996101 E-mail: michael@trbusiness.com


HEAD OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: Helen Chater Tel: +44 (0) 1892 861747 E-mail: helen@trbusiness.com


DESIGN, PRODUCTION & MULTIMEDIA: Ric Blow Tel: +44 (0) 1323 894821 E-mail: ric@trbusiness.com


ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS: 1 Year £480/ 2 Years £850. Please e-mail subs@trbusiness.com


Registered office: 16 The Warren,


Worcester Park, Surrey, KT4 7DL. UK. Reg No: 3399619. VAT no: 700 5826 63. ISSN 1369-7390.


Printed by Positive Images UK


Tel: 020 8544 5500 Distributed via Airmail. All contents are copyright.


DECEMBER 2020


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50