MyTravel Scandinavia slams Dior after price wrangle

Lorna Strickland

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The Scandinavian airline has de-listed all products from Parfums Christian Dior following a dispute over pricing

MyTravel Airways Scandinavia has de-listed all products from Parfums Christian Dior after the supplier suggested reducing the savings offered to customers from 25% to 20% lower than the high street. In a statement MyTravel Airways duty-free manager Lars Hjartbo said: "Christian Dior has been a valuable partner to us for many years. The products perform well and the service has been excellent, but we cannot let anyone but ourselves decide about our pricing strategy.

"Also, we have learnt from recent internal and external surveys that airline passengers are not ready to accept higher prices or reduced savings in travel-retail. On the contrary, they think travel-retail prices are too expensive as it is."

Hjartbo added: "If we accept the 20% proposal from one supplier, we would have to accept it from others as well, which is a big step in the wrong direction for us and for the travel-retail industry. Most airports are complaining about lower penetration caused by fewer savings. I do not want that to happen to MyTravel Airways."

Dior declined to comment but said that it would issue a statement in due course.

Hjartbo insisted that inflight retailers were justified in seeking preferential terms from suppliers. "There are several reasons why airlines need to have better offers than airport shops and ferry operators," he said. "Firstly, airlines do not offer the customer the opportunity to see and feel the product; they do not carry testers and do not offer service from beauty advisors and dedicated sales personnel.

"Secondly, by nature, airlines have to be competitive. Perception is reality, and if the customer thinks the same product can be bought at the destination for a lower price he will not shop with the airline. This is why the Scandinavian airlines have always been very careful with their pricing, guaranteeing minimum savings of 25% on perfumes and cosmetics."

See DFNI July 15 for more details.