Rakhita Jayawardena confirmed as keynote speaker at ARC2011 Asia

The organisers of ARC2011 Asia Pacific have announced that Rakhita Jayawardena, Founder and President of King Power Traveler, will deliver the closing keynote address at the Airline Retail Conference to be held on January 11-12. Jayawardena will deliver his address on the subject of “Airlines & Suppliers Working in Partnership,” an issue for which he is uniquely qualified, having managed and operated more than 40 airline concession and supply service contracts globally.

With a career in duty free spanning three decades, Jayawardena has held high-profile positions with Air Lanka and South African Airways and has been President of Inflight Duty Free Shop (New York), Alpha (UK) and now King Power Traveler. He was also the founding President of APTRA (the Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association). ARC Event Director Alex Vail says, “We are thrilled that Rakhita has agreed to speak at the event. He is well respected as a true pioneer in the in-flight retail industry, and we are all excited to hear his views on partnerships between suppliers and airlines – a unifying thread of the conference.”

When he began his duty free career as General Manager of Air Lanka in 1983, Jayawardena engineered the template for the future of in-flight retailing by creating, as he says, “a profit-oriented passenger service”. During his tenure, Air Lanka twice won the Frontier award for the Retailer of the Year among scheduled airlines. In 1987, Frontier’s Editor, Piers Harding, called him a “pioneer,” saying that …. “it would be unlikely to find a more uniquely experienced expert in this field anywhere in the world!”

Jayawardena consulted for South African Airways and revolutionised in-flight retailing by making it the first airline to remove revenue-paying seats to capture higher returns from retailing, helping the airline secure the No. 1 spend-per-passenger position amongst scheduled airlines. Subsequently, he moved to Inflight Duty Free Shop, New York (IDFS), as President and CEO. During this period, he expanded the company successfully across the globe to make it the largest in-flight retail operator at that time.

Thereafter, he was retained by Alpha PLC as the first President of Alpha On Board Sales & Services, United Kingdom. Currently, he is President of Kingpower Traveler, responsible for providing in-flight retail services to airlines throughout the Asia Pacific region. During his career, he has successfully managed and operated more than 40 full-concession and supply service contracts for global airlines and also pioneered the low-cost airline food and beverage retail service.

Jayawardena was also the founding President of the Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association (APTRA), an organisation that has all the stakeholders of the travel retail business serving an industry, with a turnover in excess of $10 billion. In January 2006, he was voted by both DFNI and The Moodie Report as travel retail’s “Person of the Year” for his sterling work in building the “Travel Retail Village” for families who lost their homes in the Tsnuami.

To register, or for more information about ARC2011 Asia Pacific, call Shelly Guerrero on +44 20 7613 6959 or visit www.airlineretail.com. The event will take place on January 11 (Tuesday) and January 12 (Wednesday) at the Grand Hyatt Macau.