Aldeasa finalises Santiago renovation

John Gallagher

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The retailer is putting the finishing touches to its extended stores at Santiago after renewing its duty-free contract at the airport last year

Spanish duty-free operator Aldeasa is finalising its renovation of outlets at Santiago's Arturo Merino Benitez International airport. The work follows the Chilean civil aviation authority's decision to extend Aldeasa's lease at the airport for 10 years, from last February (RavenFox.com, February 4 2004).

Aldeasa international commercial director Daniel Montero told RavenFox.com that the renovations would be completed this month. "We hope to be finished between the middle and the end of January," he said. "The enlarged shops are already being used by travellers but we still have some finishing touches to complete. Sales have not been badly interrupted by the building work and we are sure that we will be able report strong sales increases for the full year, ahead of passenger growth at the airport."

Work on the extension began in July 2005 and has almost doubled the size of the company's departures store from 64sq m (6,900sq ft) to 1,206sq m (12,980sq ft). The arrivals store has also been scaled up from 212sq m (2,280sq ft) to 818sq m (8,800sq ft).

Meanwhile the Chilean Aeronautical Board has confirmed an 8.3% rise in international passenger traffic for November throughout the Chilean airport network, including Santiago. International traffic between January and November reached 3.66m passengers throughout the country, an increase of 10.2% on the same period in 2004. Domestic travellers were also up for the first 11 months of the year, by 7.5% to 2.9m passengers. Routes to Buenos Aires, Madrid, Lima, São Paulo and Miami continue to be the most important for travellers leaving Chile.