NETHERLANDS. Schiphol Group has completed work on one of the most progressive, diverse and surprising commercial environments at a European airport, following a €50 million investment in Lounge 2 at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.
The official opening takes place on 1 July. The Moodie Davitt Report was invited to take an exclusive preview tour on Tuesday. (An in-depth review will appear soon in e-Zine and print with comment and reaction from key business partners such as Schiphol Airport Retail, Kappé Schiphol, Gassan, HMSHost and XpresSpa.)
The renovation, which began in September 2014, added around +20% more space for retail and dining. It extended the floor space in Lounge 2 Departures to around 16,000sq m over two levels.
The development, which saw the refurbishment of the entire consumer and commercial offer, allowed for the introduction of new brands and concepts.
These include a revitalised See Buy Fly core category travel retail offer from Kappé Schiphol and Schiphol Airport Retail; the first Johnnie Walker House in Europe in collaboration with Diageo GTME; branded boutiques new to the airport from Gucci and Bottega Veneta to complement Hermès and Burberry stores and Lagardère Travel Retail’s The Fashion Gallery.
Lounge 2 also houses a powerful watches & jewellery offer from Gassan that includes stand-alone stores from Rolex, Bulgari and Omega; consumer services such as spa concept XpresSpa and a broad and impressive dining mix from HMSHost. This features local concepts Amsterdam Bread Co. a Heineken-themed Bar and a highly innovative collaboration with Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam for a café, Frames Bar & Bites.
It also includes a family-oriented food court and particular highlights in Café Coco – a retail-to-food collaboration with Schiphol Airport Retail plus the latest evolution of the Starbucks Evenings concept complete with Starbucks Reserve coffee offer.
Key themes on which the new-look lounge was planned were relaxation, surprise and a heavy emphasis on Dutch Sense of Place, which shines through in the design and architecture, fixtures, concepts and products.
“We did not want Schiphol to look like just another airport,” said Schiphol Group Manager Commercial Development Gideon Ruig. “It had to be different. We put a lot of effort into creating the experience and humanising the airport. It had to have that human touch.”
He added: “We know that time is an issue at the airport. We want to maximise this time and make it enjoyable and relaxing for people. That was one goal. We also wanted them also to be surprised. That means telling stories about our country and about Schiphol – and there are many small stories that we tell right across the lounge. The other focus was the Dutch theme. The environment had to be comfortable and social. You see that in the ceilings, floors and lighting. The design does not run in straight lines as you might expect; there are little imperfections that make for a more human space.
“The natural floor and ceilings make for a great base for the concepts developed by the business partners. This was overseen by the architect Kossmann Dejong; they had not worked in the airport space before but they knew how to tell stories and looked for non-traditional design in many areas. And all of this had to fit within a similar footprint to what we had before as we didn’t have the space to expand the terminal.”
The airport developed the base themes into seven distinct ‘worlds’ that are bundled together across the Lounge 2 space. The worlds are: See Buy Fly, Family, Wellness, Travel & Culture, Luxury, Fashion & Lifestyle and Modern Dutch.
Schiphol Group Director Commercial Services & Media Anne-Marie Zuidweg said: “We created the framework but we wanted the business partners to excel with their own concepts within that. And they have delivered.”
Schiphol Group Director Consumer Products & Services Tanja Dik said: “This is an evolution for Schiphol. Luxury is one example where we have given the brands a logical space or ‘world’ in our commercial areas. This clustering helps guide people.”
In Lounge 2, Schiphol has taken the integration of retail, dining and services to a new level. This features in the joint HMSHost-Schiphol Airport Retail outlet Coco Café, but can also be seen in the combined electronics and books offer, the bar on the upper floor of the Johnnie Walker House, in the retail element (as well as a quality food offer) at Starbucks Evenings on the mezzanine level or in the partnership with KLM to develop a children’s play zone adjacent to the M&Ms shop within the Family ‘world’.
Zuidweg said: “We are not siloed any more; today the airport has to be about the integration of services. It is about bundling these together in an efficient way that appeals to how the travellers wants to journey through the airport.”
With the introduction last year of central security, travellers now enter the non-Schengen zone on the upper level with views not only through the terminal but also out onto the apron, with the opportunity to orientate themselves and choose what services and stores to browse.
The large floor tiles below and lighting above offer directional flows and help that orientation with the lighting in particular changing to powerful effect from zone to zone, assisting passengers with their wayfinding.
Relaxation areas are dotted through the terminal to encourage travellers to linger within the commercial area; these areas feature bespoke seating design and power sockets.
In other neat touches, store fascias in the Wellness area – which houses an XpresSpa unit (introducing haircare to the airport offer), MAC, a pharmacy and perfumery from Kappé and electronics and books offer – carries tree leaves embedded in the design. In a further nod to the landscape and nature of the Netherlands, a number of trees are placed in seating zones around the pier.
There are many other flourishes, from the airport codes in the ceiling of one section of the terminal to the subtle F&B branding built into the food court lighting, and from the whimsical sculptures of Dutch cows built into the tiling of walls around the terminal to the bicycles that are part of the table seating in the Family world.
The Family world, adjacent to a new M&Ms store and the food court on the upper level, also houses a stunning play area that was developed by the airport in partnership with KLM. This is dominated by a lifesize plane feature – built in part from the nose cone of an actual aircraft – with pilot controls, seating and a full play area within. Nearby seating allows parents to supervise their children while relaxing of having a meal from the food court.
From this upper level travellers will (from 1 July) have striking views of one of the most eye-catching features of any European airport terminal: a suspended clock that will be unveiled next week at the official opening. This combines functionality with humour and a social and human dimension. The clock structure will house a silhouette of a man who can be seen moving within, scrubbing out and replacing the hands every single minute of every day to create a spectacular ‘time machine’.
Ruig said: “We planned all of the space alongside or operations teams and each of us had to leave our comfort zone for this project. We had to think differently. For example like very airport we have norms for seating capacity but we found new ways to deliver that.”
Zuidweg said: “We were focused on customer needs and wants, not just destinations and nationalities. The worlds we created have something for our very diverse audience. By clustering the worlds and services, the dimensions are at a more human scale and allow us to target different traveller groups with the same offer, with retail and F&B to match the themes of each world. We have brought together an immersive experience and much more choice.”
Schiphol Group said it expected the new lounge to help deliver a +10-15% uplift in commercial sales amid its drive to be seen as ‘Europe’s preferred airport’.
Lounge 2 hosts around 15 million travellers a year with 61% of them transferring to other flights.
*Watch out for our in-depth report on the new Lounge 2 with more airport comment, images and input from HMSHost, Schiphol Airport Retail, Kappé Schiphol, Lagardere Travel Retail, Gassan and XpresSpa.
