ARC Asia Pacific: reinventing
in-flight retail

The first Airline Retail Conference (ARC) in Asia took place at the Grand Hyatt Macau from January 11-12 this year. The event was a huge success, with more than 150 delegates from across the Asia Pacific region, as well as airlines from the US, Europe, Scandinavia and the Middle East, participating in the conference.

ARC was supported by four headline sponsors — Moët Hennessy, Coca-Cola, Inflight Sales Group and Ice-Watch — as well as an excellent 21-stand exhibition, with the right mix of established travel retail brands and several exciting new companies joining the market.

Alex Vail, Event Director for ARC, says, “We are incredibly pleased with the support shown for the event. Delegate and exhibitor feedback has been tremendous; everyone found the event both enjoyable and useful. We are really looking forward to growing the Asia Pacific event when it returns in 2012.”

The challenging conference agenda included several issues of vital importance to the in-flight retail sector, with sessions featuring expert speakers and panelists from the industry.

Olivier Dubos, General Manager of Scental, opened the conference by discussing the Asian beauty opportunity for travel retailers. He said, “The Chinese see beauty as a necessity, not an excess.” The importance of China in the world travel market was also highlighted by ISG’s Managing Director Tony Detter, who made an excellent presentation on retail trends, winning products and successful promotional tools used on board Chinese airlines.

In a rousing keynote address, President of King Power Traveler, Rakhita Jayawardena, told delegates there has never been a better time, since the birth of in-flight retail, to create a new revenue model. With new technological advancements and customer expectations, he said there was a real opportunity to expand the in-flight retail channel and to both expect and deliver far greater revenues than what is currently being achieved on board.

Stressing the need for increasing revenues through concessionaire-brand partnerships, John Garner, President of DFASS (Singapore), and Tim Rycroft, Corporate Relations Director at Diageo, presented a session together about their working partnership and how it benefits both passengers and the airlines they serve.

Max Williams of Tourvest Duty Free and Richard McGratty of McG Consultants took part in an interesting panel discussion, looking at existing problems in the in-flight retail supply chain and offering suggestions on how it can be improved to the benefit of airlines and the brands stocked on board.

Pierre Freyssinet, President of Uleo Holding, pointed out that in the last 50 years, high-street retail has changed beyond recognition to meet customer needs, while on-board retail remains relatively unchanged. He suggested a number of simple innovations that could improve passenger spending habits.

Managing the complete passenger experience
John Devins of GuestLogix delivered a presentation outlining a number of ways that airlines could change their approach to passengers by harnessing new technology to generate more revenue from each seat. He looked at the many opportunities missed between booking and arrivals. Microsoft’s Dave McLaughlan spoke about the possibilities open to airlines using in-flight entertainment systems and on-board mobile devices.

Emphasising the importance of creative product selection, United Airlines’ MD Global Product Stuart Benzal demonstrated how United has committed to researching, testing and implementing new ideas on board. He was joined for discussion and questions by Scorpio’s MD, Stuart McGuire.

L’Oréal’s Augustin Bondonneau made a presentation on how major brands often neglect in-flight as a viable retail channel. Brands should take on the responsibility to promote the channel to consumers, he said. He was joined on stage by John Goodman of Ogilvy & Mather for questions and discussion.