Dior and Virgin complete line-up for Nice T2 opening

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Christian Dior and a Virgin Music store by Hachette Distribution Services last week became the last retailers to sign up for Nice Cote d'Azur airport's new terminal 2, which had its opening ceremony yesterday

Each will operate a store of 70sq m (753sq ft) in the Schengen departures area alongside a Chedeville fine foods and regional products store, Weitnauer's multi-brand fashion store and a jewellery outlet by local operator Ferret. Weitnauer will also operate two liquor, tobacco and perfumery outlets of 108sq m (1,162sq ft) and 134sq m (1,442sq ft) in Schengen departures and another 108sq m (1,162sq ft) store in the non-Schengen area serving Delta, North African and other carriers. The Dior leathergoods and accesories outlet is believed to be the first such stand-alone store in any airport. Nine landside stores complete the total offering of 19 stores over 1,200sq m (12,912sq ft), excluding food & beverage of 2,700sq  (29,052sq ft).

Speaking at the opening, Aéroport Nice Cote D'Azur international business development and operations director Didier Monges told TRW: "We knew what we wanted in terms of duty-free, fashion, jewellery and left two spaces available for something different. Virgin in particular with its young image is suitable for the profile of our low-cost carriers." At Nice, budget airlines such as easyJet, Air Liberté and others represent 20% of traffic, a figure that is expected to rise to 35%. In this respect, France's second-largest airport with growing leisure and international traffic, is pioneering and above the European average.

"The terminal will enter operations on December 17 with Chedeville and Ferret stores open and Paris traffic initially," said Monges. "The duty-free and others will follow in early February due to some architectural delays."

It is not yet clear whether stores will carry the Travel Value slogan as in terminal 1 with Aélia. "We support that idea and will see what we can reach," said Monges.

The T2 ribbon cutting by French State Secretary for Transport and Sea Dominique Bussereau included a dazzling acrobatic show attended by architect Paul Andreu, the president of French Riviera Chamber of Commerce (CCI) Francis Pérugini and 1,500 guests.

Possible reform of Nice airport's ownership structure and the whole French airport system was another subject discussed at the press conference and an announcement on this is expected soon. The system - dating back to 1929 - determines the local control by CCIs of all 130 French airports and airfields, other than those within Aéroports de Paris.