Gate delivery system prompts recovery at InterBaires

John Gallagher

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InterBaires estimates an 8% drop in sales during August compared to the same period last year but the company is optimistic that business is slowly returning to normal following heightened security restrictions

InterBaires CEO Enrique Urioste has confirmed that the company's gate delivery system for flights from Buenos Aires Ezeiza International airport to destinations in the US is now fully operational and is working "better than expected".

He said: "We predict that we will only be down 8% against our latest sales estimate for August compared to the same month last year. We are quietly optimistic that things will get back to normal shortly. After the terrorist threat was revealed in London and it became clear that certain categories were going to have problems, we started to talk to the US government and the Transportation Security Administration and requested that they audit our [gate delivery] system. It was finally approved after several days hard work from our team and our IT staff have designed a system to ensure that orders including fragrances, cosmetics and liquor destined for the US can be located at all times. This has been a key factor in selling the gate delivery idea to people who haven't used it before."

InterBaires sought to lower customer stress levels following the terror alert by providing entertainers and musicians for passengers in the security queues and a programme of product tastings also encouraged travellers to go to the duty-free shops after the security checks. Urioste explained: "Things have now quietened down and the security lines seems to be under control but we still have our violinist playing a few hours of classical music a day in our flagship store – the soothing notes of the violin appear to make people happy and sales are recovering."