Inflight Service to look beyond Nordic region for airline business

Swedish travel retailer and distributor Inflight Service has reported that it is looking beyond its traditional catchment area to attract new airlines to its purchasing pool. The company, which serves several predominantly charter and low-cost carriers in the Nordic region, revealed the strategy to DFNIonline after a year in which it has invested strongly in strengthening its logistical infrastructure.

 

CEO Peter Candell said: “We have invested significantly in IT, systems and people. By completing our latest investment, the acquisition of the packing facility in Tibro (Southern Sweden) from LSG SkyChefs, I am confident that we now have a very efficient logistic platform…In the airline sector we seek to explore other markets outside the Nordic [region].”

 

The company reported sales growth of 30% in 2007 in its retail outlets business, which includes its airline as well as its Euroshop airport store business in Poland, Latvia and Estonia. Candell said the company had been positively influenced by the boom in Nordic charter travel, and that it was also seeing the fruits of several years of efforts to increase spend per passenger. The increasing importance of internet pre-orders, which represent 65% of Inflight Service’s total sales per passenger, has also allowed the company greater flexibility in its offer, he added.

 

The company, which was acquired by investment firm CapMan in late 2005, is well-positioned to grow its retail business, Candell concluded. “I believe that the improvement of our retail concepts in combination with an enhanced distribution and logistic platform will prove crucial in expanding our business further.”