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GHIAL Chief Commercial Officer Viswanath Attalluri has high hopes for increasing non-aeronautical revenues |
INDIA. GMR-Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL) plans to increase its share of non-aeronautical revenues from 30% today to 50% within the next three to five years, and eventually hopes non-aviation income can account for 70% of revenues. That’s according to Chief Commercial Officer Viswanath Attalluri, speaking to The Moodie Report in Hyderabad this week.
He said: “At the old airport in Begumpet, there was no track record of non-aeronautical revenues – aeronautical revenues were over 90% of our income, so we really started with no background in this business. Now, after a year of operations, non-aviation income is 30% of revenues but we want this to grow substantially.
“The aim is for 50% of revenues within three to five years, and eventually we might be able to reverse the current numbers, so non-aeronautical revenue is 70%, not 30%.”
He said that duty free – operated by The Nuance Group in partnership with Shoppers’ Stop – was a crucial source of revenue, for which the airport also has big ambitions.
Viswanath said: “Duty free spend per head is around US$4, but we’d like that to rise to US$6-7, and we’re taking some measures with our partners to achieve that.
“First, we hope to get clearance from the EU for our aviation security regime, so we can sell LAGS to EU-bound transfer passengers, and there is an audit of the airport scheduled for May, which we hope will accelerate the process.
“We also want to broaden our reach to passengers by attracting new airline business. Currently 50% of our international traffic is from the Gulf so we want a broader base. In addition, we also want to put more investment behind communicating our pricing policy and promotions to passengers – including via the Internet. Plus we are planning to work with our retail partner to make some changes to the layout of the main duty free store, and we want to ad new business in Arrivals.”
In the Arrivals area GHIAL wants to open a new store offering mid-priced goods, targeting spend from passengers coming from the Gulf states. In addition, said Viswanath, GHIAL is examining the possibility of opening a new duty paid outlet in Arrivals, as a convenience for passengers.
Viswanath was speaking at Routes Asia, which GHIAL is hosting this week in Hyderabad. The event gathers airline and airports to discuss air routes and services. It began on Sunday with a conference covering key issues facing the aviation industry in Asia Pacific – and included a special session on non-aeronautical revenues, featuring speakers from GHIAL, Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, Schiphol Group, Woodhead Design, plus The Moodie Report Deputy Publisher Dermot Davitt.
A report on Routes Asia 2009 will appear in coming days.
NOTE: The Moodie Report India, part of our dedicated regional news section on this website, contains all stories on India’s travel retail industry dating back to early 2003. You can access it via the dropdown menu on our home page under Regional News or by simply clicking here.
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