Retail Takes Wing At New Airports

Mumbai/New Delhi/Hyderabad: With a host of swanky new airports coming up across large Indian cities, conventional malls and high streets have competition at their doorstep. The battle for a part of the well heeled's wallet would only get more intense when you start flying in and out of Delhi's biggest and most expensive mall. We are talking about the new domestic-cum-international IGI terminal (T3), which will be thrown open by the month-end, and will have a retail area larger than most malls.
Airport retailing in India has clearly arrived over the last couple of years with expansion and modernisation of more airports gathering pace. And the competition with existing malls can only get fiercer over the next few years. Flyers, now, will not only get to shop for globally renowned brands like Versace, WH Smith, Hugo Boss and Swarovski, but shop 24x7 in an environment more suitable to the showcasing of such premium brands, some of which have over the years preferred to operate out of the refined environs of five star hotels.
For Delhi's new T3 terminal, with an annual passenger handling capacity of 3.5 crore at T3, the expected footfalls are, no doubt, going to be huge. What's more important is that it's a captive place for conspicuous consumption as well.
12/07/10 Namrata Singh, Saurabh Sinha & Swati Bharadwaj-Chand/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Jul 2010