Bucharest Otopeni airport stores closed

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By John Rimmer

As the dispute between the Romanian government and Bucharest Otopeni airport operator EDF Asro escalates, the retailer has had its outlets at Otopeni closed and its offices deprived of electricity and telephone connections.

As revealed in Duty-Free News International in February, the government decided in January to cease its participation in the EDF Asro joint venture, in which it had a 27% share through state-owned airline Tarom and airport authority AIBO. The government then announced an auction would be held for Otopeni's duty-free operation, a process denounced as illegal by foreign investor EDF Services, the major stakeholder in EDF Asro.

EDF Asro director Marco Katz told TRW the government's actions left the company "without a voice, helpless and totally open to future abuses and violations of the law". The operator has begun legal action against the government's decision to re-tender duty-free at Otopeni, arguing that EDF Asro had been granted an extension to its Bucharest contract in 2000. Katz reassured suppliers that EDF Asro would honour all its commitments, and called on them to send letters of support to the operator's offices.

EDF Services' inflight retail division, Sky In Flight, has remained unaffected by the dispute.

Further details will follow in the April 15 issue of Duty-Free News International, out next week.