MEXICO. Grupo Aeroportuario Del Pacífico (GAP) has appointed The Design Solution (TDS) to design redeveloped terminal space at Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla Guadalajara International Airport.
TDS, an airport retail design specialist, said it would address the challenges faced at Guadalajara International by the airport’s rapid growth in traffic, which reached 12.8 million in 2017. The airport is undergoing a phased expansion and refurbishment programme to accommodate the continued strong traffic growth forecasted.
A pier expansion project was recently completed, and GAP is now focusing on the main commercial area of the terminal.
“The area between the international gates and the expanded pier is where passengers arrive at the departures level from the two security areas before entering a complex pattern of flows through shops, bars, restaurants and airline lounges,” explained TDS Managing Director Robbie Gill.
“This area of the terminal has been expanded over many years through numerous projects, resulting in a less than optimum layout with some areas being frantically busy and others relatively quiet.
“Our challenge, supported by Pragma Consulting, is to reconfigure the five different zones and consolidate them into a cohesive commercial area where the vast majority of shops bars and restaurants are visible to all departing passengers and optimise the commercial effectiveness of the space.”
The Guadalajara project comes two months after GAP appointed TDS to carry out a commercial planning exercise for Los Cabos Airport, on Mexico’s Baja Peninsula, with the design stages about to commence.
GAP CEO Raul Revuelta commented: “GAP is dedicated to being the leading provider of airport services and products in Mexico. We are strongly committed to raising the quality of the passenger experience at Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla Guadalajara International Airport and, having been impressed by TDS’s approach at another of our airports (Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, Jamaica), we are delighted to have their input into our development at Guadalajara International Airport.”
TDS previously designed the Dufry Duty Free shop in Cancun, which opened earlier in the year, but its contracts with GAP represent the company’s first combined airport planning and design projects in Mexico, Gill said.
