CANADA: VANCOUVER AIRPORT
“Canada does not yet have the option of arrivals duty free shopping for inbound passengers. We think all of our customers are missing an opportunity to buy conveniently on arrival in Canada.“
Scott Norris, Vancouver Airport Authority
and having unique shopping and dining options play a big part in that. Phase one of the expansion will
and includes rates lower than any other major airport in Canada and competing US airports. To help increase non-aeronautical revenue, we are constantly looking at improving the shopping and dining experience at YVR. We are incorporating this into our retail strategic plan to improve the relevancy of existing locations and planning out for new locations in our new upcoming expansion plans. These will capture the character of our beautiful region, as well as provide exciting new experiences for the customer.
A reported $1.7bn has been earmarked for major capital projects over the next three years to enhance the airport experience, including Pier D’s expansion in the international terminal. Can you provide a flavour of what’s in store commercially? We are very excited for the upcoming expansion of Pier D – customers will experience many new duty free, retail and food and beverage offerings. All these will tie into the overall sense of place that YVR has become so well known for. We want to create an exceptional customer experience
include eight new gates, including a remote stand operation (RSO), which will provide bussing to the aircraft – a new concept for YVR. This type of operation allows for greater throughput and will see an increase of footfall traffic to the area, so we are cognisant of that as we design our offerings. A further phase two will be added in the future, which will include additional space for new concession concepts.
The Canadian dollar has appreciated against
the
Greenback recently as it experiences continued volatility versus major currencies. How has the current FX situation against major international currencies impacted retail spending in recent months? Generally, spending in the international area for our customers to Asia, Europe and Latin America has continued to stay steady and in many cases, increase. In our US departure area where there is a larger segment of US travellers, we expect our expansion of duty free and retail space, as well as the new food offerings, will naturally encourage an increase in spend in the future.
Canada ranked highly in terms of international departure forward bookings to the Middle East in Q1 this year, according to recent research from ForwardKeys, and remains popular among Indian travellers. Are you seeing any
signs these trends are translating to increased retail sales? We were very excited to launch a service from YVR to Delhi with Air Canada last year and it has since expanded this seasonal service year-round. This has been a highly sought-after route for our local community and we’re pleased that our passengers will now have access to these flights throughout the year starting June 8, 2018. We are definitely seeing an increase in passengers with this direct service, which should reflect positively in our retail sales too.
What do you view as the biggest challenge in staying competitive in the Canadian airport retail market? We have an outstanding award- winning concession programme here at YVR. We currently have more than 170 shops, services and restaurants. We are always looking to improve
this experience and are in the midst of redeveloping our concession programme in every terminal. As we continue to focus our efforts on being a world-class connecting hub, we are seeing changes in our passenger profile. For example, YVR has the most mainland Chinese carriers in all of the Americas and Europe. With this, we have seen many new services to secondary cities in China, which is great as we are now seeing a new wave of Chinese customers that consist of both the middle class and high-end customers. This is exciting for us and we are finding that they are responding very well to our retail programme. While not directly related to
A soon-to-be-announced fashion concept will support high-end boutiques such as Cartier (pictured). 68 TRBUSINESS
Chinese passengers only, Canada does not yet have the option of arrivals duty free shopping for inbound passengers. We think all of our customers are missing an opportunity to buy conveniently on arrival in Canada and this also supports the creation of local jobs. To ensure that we remain competitive, we put a lot of focus on local and authentic products that distinguish YVR and provide a British Columbian character while offering a variety of strong international brands that complement the demographic profile of our customers. «
MARCH 2018
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