Aldeasa in talks with LAP about renovations at Lima

Tina Milton

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Stores to be extended and renovated by 2008

Aldeasa is in talks with Fraport and Alterra Partners joint venture Lima Airport Partners (LAP) about plans to extend and renovate its stores at Lima Jorge Chávez International airport by 2008.

Aldeasa signed a new agreement with LAP at Lima to extend and renovate the stores at Jorge Chavez airport in 2005 and the concession was extended to 2011, with an option to add six years if targets are met. Aldeasa operates four stores in the duty-free area, four in the duty-paid area and two landside at the airport.

Aldeasa Peru general manager Edgar Farfán explained in the August 15 edition of DFNI: “We are talking to LAP about growth and renovations plans. We are facing new challenges as the airport is shortly to refurbish its airside space with a view to increasing capacity and creating a new commercial area. This means that in a few months we will be making changes to our stores. Aldeasa favours modernising its stores in order to keep up with the modernisation of Lima airport. Investment in 2005 totalled nearly $2m and since then we have also offered new products airside such as destination items, electronics and luggage.”

In the past year Aldeasa’s sales at Lima have increased by 15.3%, which the travel retailer attributed to an increase in passenger numbers and spend per head. Farfán insisted: “We consider that this evolution has been negatively affected by the liquid restrictions approved by the European Commission. We are worried about the effect of the new liquid restrictions, which have applied in Peru since the beginning of August.”

Despite this international arrivals passengers were up by 15.8% in June and domestic flights were up by 33% and these figures are expected to remain the same until the end of the year.

Since the arrival of LAP in 2001, one of its main challenges has been to develop Lima into a hub for the region. This is a task that it is working hard at and over the past few months a number of new airlines such as Gol, Air Canada and Spirit Air have boosted numbers. Established operators have also announced a number of new routes. Lan Perú, for example, plans to launch a direct flight to Madrid. Although it has gone some way to achieve its hub status, working in partnership with Aldeasa can only help it achieve its goal more quickly and efficiently while putting its retail offer on the map.