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Dublin Airport Authority

Dublin Airport Authority, parent group of travel retailer Aer Rianta International (ARI), has been formally renamed daa by its principal shareholder the Irish Government. The decision represents “a pragmatic and cost-effective response to a situation where the specific ‘Dublin’ and ‘Authority’ elements of the corporate name did not fully reflect its business focus or ethos”. Under the existing holding company framework, daa will continue to promote the identities of its operating business units, including Dublin and Cork airports.

Heathrow Airport

Passengers at Heathrow are being tracked through the airport to reduce delays to planes and help save airlines millions of pounds. Heathrow is rolling out a new system of smart boarding cards that it believes will put an end
to the last-minute frantic search for lost passengers and could improve the punctuality of nearly half of flights.

St. Tropez Airport

Aéroports de la Côte d’Azur (ACA) has bought Aéroport du Golfe de St Tropez (AGST) from the Reybier group. ACA, which now has 99.9% of shares in the airport, is France’s second largest airport company, serving 11.2 million passengers in 2012 through Nice Côte d’Azur (NCE) and Cannes-Mandelieu (CEQ) airports.

Lisbon Airport

Lisbon Airport has increased the area dedicated to specialist retail by 80%, boosting turnover by $20 million (€15m). Lisbon Airport has recently opened a new 2,000sqm commercial area featuring 20 new stores from major international retail chains
in departures. This expansion will result in 100 new jobs and estimated annual sales turnover of €15 million.

Athens International Airport

Passenger numbers at Athens International Airport (AIA) have remained robust and the facility has continued to secure new business. For many years now it has been offering a “risk-sharing” incentive scheme, providing significant discounts to its
charges for the airlines developing new and/or additional services out of the Greek capital. This winter AIA will introduce three further targeted incentive schemes to further enhance relationships with current and potential future airline partners.

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

Schiphol Airport has inked a deal with Chinese car manufacturer BYD for 35 all-electric 12-metre-long buses. The buses will be used for shuttling passengers from gates to aircraft not using a jetway. BYD claims the Schiphol fleet of tailpipefree electric buses is Europe’s largest. The vehicles will hit the airport tarmac in about a year.

Munich Airport

Munich’s ‘job machine’ airport is still creating more than two jobs each day, despite Europe’s downturn, claims the gateway’s CEO. Over the last three years, Munich Airport’s headcount has climbed by +9% from 29,560 up to 32,250, adding almost 2,800 jobs or almost 2.5 every day. Employment opportunities at Munich Airport also cover a vast range of occupations, said the gateway.

Sheremetyevo International Airport

After famously playing host to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in July, Sheremetyevo International Airport has opened a state-of-the-art capsule hotel ‘Vozdushny Express’ intended for transit passengers. The new hotel is located at the Clean & Transfer Area of Terminal E. The hotel is open 24 hours. The guests may only stay in the hotel for 24 hours or less. Vozdushny Express was built on the basis of European capsule hotels.

TAV Airports Holding

Turkey’s TAV Airports Holding has said it has qualified to bid for rights to operate and reconstruct New York’s LaGuardia Airport as part of a consortium. TAV first expressed interest in the US airport back in January. The consortium includes TAV shareholder Aéroports de Paris (ADP), Goldman Sachs, Tutor Perini Corporation, Ove Arup & Partners PC, Kohn Pederson Fox Associates PC, Suffolk Construction Company, STV Incorporated and ADP Ingenierie. There are a total of four consortiums that have qualified for the LaGuardia Airport tender.

Budapest Airport

Budapest Airport has announced the launch of a new schedule that will link the East European cities of Minsk in Belarus, Belgrade in Serbia and Budapest, Hungary. The new year-round service began on 19 September 2013 and will be operated by the Belarusian Airline, Belavia, which is the fourth new airline to announce routes into Budapest this year. The announcement further strengthens the expanding number of Eastern European cities accessible from the Central European Hub airport at Budapest.