- Inflight retail consolidated across all five TUI tour operator airlines with one sole supplier
- Passengers benefit from consistent inflight retail experience, broader product range of food and beverages and duty free items
- Duty Free pre-order allows customers to pre-order duty free items from the comfort of their own home prior to departure
- Acceleration of ‘OneAviation’ programme through increased operational efficiency
- 5-year contract with gategroup entity Gate Retail Onboard (“GRO”) harnesses the economies of scale and purchasing power of TUI’s 13 million annual airline customers
- Inflight sales across TUI airlines to increase by 25 percent over contract term
- Transitioning to GRO as retailer will happen gradually with all five airlines
With this new cooperation TUI is creating even more efficient processes, streamlining its procurement and will have grown its inflight sale by 25 percent at the end of the agreed contract period. Furthermore, customers will be able to choose from a wider range of products at more competitive prices: “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”, explains 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 1st of March 2016.
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.
