Emirates Group Chooses London For Inflight Retail HQ As Focus On Ancillary Sales Sharpens

Emirates Group Chooses London For Inflight Retail HQ As Focus On Ancillary Sales Sharpens

Will a dedicated retail HQ in London increase inflight sales?



Emirates Group

Dubai-based air services provider dnata—part of Emirates Group—has set up a specialist retail unit in London, England that will offer airline customers on-board retail programmes to maximize ancillary revenue.

During the course of the Covid-19 pandemic and widespread travel bans, airlines have been particularly hit and have had to rely on government aid. The financial damage has been immense—for example in Europe, Easyjet reported its first ever loss and in the U.S. American Airlines



AAL

has cut thousands of jobs and pared back its domestic route network.

With far fewer passengers travelling, airlines are trying to increase revenue per head by improving services, and dnata believes its decision to create a specific retail division will support this. A company spokesperson told Forbes.com: “As more airlines adopt and look to innovate in inflight retail, forming a central team dedicated to global strategy, solutions and delivery makes sense. It ensures that consistent solutions are available across our network.”



The latest update on ancillary revenue from Wisconsin-based consulting group IdeaWorksCompany projects that it will drop by almost