Austrian Airlines steps away from ground shop business

Tina Milton

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Austrian Airlines plans to relaunch onboard sales to selected EU flights after parting company with its ground shop operation

Austrian Airlines has decided to part company with its ground shop operation Travel Value Wien at Vienna International airport, to concentrate on its core inflight duty-free business. It formerly operated as a joint venture with Gebr Heinemann, which was dissolved and Heinemann took over the management of the Travel Value and Duty Free Shops at the beginning of the year.

Inflight sales manager Rudolf Pretzel said the agreement between the two companies was reached at the end of last year and that the core inflight duty-free business was performing strongly.

“Onboard sales have increased by 10% compared to the previous year," said Pretzel. "We plan to relaunch onboard sales on some flights within the European Union. We are trying the concept on some test flights over the next three months and if it continues to work well the initiative could be introduced in October.”