INTERNATIONAL. The Trinity Initiative, a project designed to help plot the future commercial, consumer and contractual landscape of the airport retail world, moves into a key consultation phase starting this week.
Key focus areas of the consultation include:
- Evaluating changing consumer understanding and behaviour (in the pre-vaccine and post-vaccine world) – and how airports (first) and then their commercial operators need to respond to that dynamic (see point 2).
- The evolution of airport physical commercial space, short and long term – retail, F&B, others (changing configuration; space, assortment, investment etc). The consultation recognises that airports will need to follow evolving national public health frameworks and try to manage country-by-country differences as best they can.
- Evolving travel retail product strategy; channel perception (brands).
- Accelerating the omnichannel evolution (new ways of buying/selling, role of each actor, investments).
- Contractual relationships (exploring new or reworked models for airport concessions).
- Involving other travel sector stakeholders/interested parties (airlines, regulators, others).
As reported, The Trinity Initiative was launched late last month by The Moodie Davitt Report with the cooperation of a range of senior industry stakeholders and in association with leading international management consultancy Bain & Company.
Bain & Company has provided its capabilities and resources as an industry service to ensure rapid progress can be made on a critical issue facing the aviation and travel retail sectors. Key questions include:
- How can airports best ensure the funding they require from non-aeronautical revenue sources given a fast-changing regulatory, health and consumer landscape?
- What is the best way to ensure a ‘win’ for the airports, while ensuring that they attract the necessary investment and expertise of quality commercial operators and their brand partners?
Bain & Company Italy Partner Mauro Anastasi and Jack MacGowan, Director at Castlepole Consulting in Ireland and former CEO of Irish state-owned Aer Rianta International led off proceedings with two well-attended Moodie Davitt Report-hosted webinars on 24 April. These are now being followed up with extensive public consultation and some behind-the-scenes, strictly private, conversations.
Discussions are taking place with a wide range of industry executives and associations, representing all stakeholder elements. All contributions will be on an anonymous basis.
Macro road map
The consultative phase will run through May and June, followed by presentation webinars via The Moodie Davitt Report in July and then a further period of public consultation. A formal White Paper presentation will be delivered in September within the Symposium at the inaugural Moodie Davitt Virtual Travel Retail Expo.
The discussions will always be industry-led (while facilitated variously, as most appropriate, by Martin Moodie, Jack MacGowan, and Mauro Anastasi) and will give equal weight to all Trinity stakeholders’ perspectives.
Towards a White Paper
The White Paper will present practical guidelines on how the industry should address key topics. These to be agreed by all Trinity stakeholders – or will show indicated areas of disagreement, but with the goal of solving them through the process).
The intention is that the White Paper can be widely used as a reference guide to the industry.
It will NOT address company-specific topics or those subject to individual negotiations.
Key assumptions
- Global passenger volume will go down for the next 3 years+
- Spend per pax will go down for next 3 years+
- Consumer behaviour will change: what they will buy, how they will buy
Bain & Company research will underpin these assumptions and will be offered to a small number of working groups as input. Each of these working groups will concentrate on some of the focus areas mentioned earlier.
Note: The Moodie Davitt Report and Bain & Company welcome written or verbal representations to The Trinity Initiative. Please contact Martin Moodie at Martin@MoodieDavittReport.com
