TUI signs GRO inflight retail deal
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TUI Group has formally signed a five-year contract with gategroup through its Gate Retail Onboard (“GRO”) subsidiary, to be its single source supplier for inflight retail for all five tour operator airlines of TUI Group.
The scope of the contract includes on-board sales of food & beverage, duty free articles as well as pre-order sales in the UK and the Nordics.
With this new cooperation TUI is creating more efficient processes, streamlining its procurement and will have grown its inflight sale by 25 percent at the end of the agreed contract period, the company estimates.
“Our focus on ‘making travel experiences special’ underpins everything we do: The consolidation of the services, another milestone of the ‘OneAviation’ programme, will mean better in-flight services for our passengers, generate additional profits for the Group and make TUI one of the largest inflight retailers in the industry, cementing our competitive position,” said Henrik Homann, managing director Aviation, TUI Group.
Duty Free pre-order allows customers to pre-order duty free items from the comfort of their own home prior to departure and have the goods delivered to their plane seat, on the outbound or homebound flight. In addition to that, customers can place orders with crew on the outbound flight for homebound delivery. This service has been in existence in the Nordics and is scheduled to be introduced in the UK and Ireland in October 2016. In parallel with this, TUI is entering into a partnership with DHL as its lead logistics partner for the five airlines.
Preparations for the implementation have been ongoing since July 2015 and the UK and Ireland will be the first source markets to transition to GRO on 1 March.
Both Group inflight retail and inflight supply chain programmes are embedded in the ‘OneAviation’ programme, bringing together the economies of scale of a fleet of 140 planes and purchasing power of its 13 million annual passengers. The programme is run by David Burling, member of the Executive Board of TUI Group, in charge of Northern Region, Airlines and Hotel Purchasing and Henrik Homann. The five tour operator airlines of TUI include Thomson Airways, TUIfly Germany, TUIfly Nordic, TUIfly Netherlands and Jetairfly.
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