Vienna appoints AT Kearney to assist with Skylink tender

Tina Milton

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Vienna International airport will work with consultancy AT Kearney on the invited tender for commercial space at the Skylink terminal

Vienna International airport has appointed consultancy AT Kearney to assist with the invited tender for its new Skylink terminal. Vienna is poised to launch the first phase of the tender, which will be released in three sections.

Vienna head of centre management Franz Svoboda told RavenFox.com: “Owing to the scale of the tender, which will include more than 50 shops, it will be released in three stages. The first section, which will include the arrivals level and between 10 and 12 outlets, will be issued at the beginning of July. The other two sections, which will feature the balance of the retail space, food and beverage and foreign currency, will be released three to four weeks later.”

The new terminal is expected to open at the end of 2008 or the beginning of 2009 and will include 10,000sq m (107,600sq ft) of commercial space. It will serve Schengen and non-Schengen passenger traffic on two separate levels and house 1,400sq m (15,065sq ft) of retail space landside and a further 4,400sq m (47,345sq ft) airside. About 2,900sq m (31,205sq ft) of space will be dedicated to food and beverage outlets (1,800sq m/19,370sq ft landside and 1,100sq m/11,835sq ft airside). It will be the main terminal for flag carrier Austrian Airlines.

Svoboda said: “We are still pre-selecting companies and receiving their business plans and we have a large number of international companies that are already in the tenant mix.”

The Nuance Group, which already operates several speciality concessions in Vienna’s existing terminal, is likely to be interested in bidding, as is the Sardana Group of Companies, which represents several retail franchises at the airport and runs a variety of souvenir and gift shops. Travel Value Wien, operated by Gebr Heinemann, is also likely to be a contender.

A shortlist will be drawn up by September, with a final result expected by the end of the year.