London Gatwick Airport - Summer Festival

As readers of this magazine will know, retail (and also parking) is as important a revenue stream for airports as landing fees - if not more so.

To maximise retail revenues, major airports by and large stage major events and campaigns to coincide with the peak Summer and Christmas periods, with the ultimate aim of getting passengers to spend more money.

One example is London Gatwick Air- port’s Summer Festival, which is running until the end of September.

Both of Gatwick’s terminals have been adorned with festival-themed branding and decorations, until 30 September. And with 12.1% more children travelling through Gatwick during August compared with November, the airport’s Summer Festival has adopted a family focus.

As a result, retailer WHSmith Gatwick is bringing children’s literature characters to the airport for the event, with Peter Rabbit and Mog the Cat staging exclusive book readings in the airport’s kids zones throughout the summer.

Meanwhile the airport is bringing in a Trinidadian steel band (as many LGW long haul routes are to the Caribbean) to perform for passengers.

To stimulate retail sales, the airport is giving away £10,000 worth of vouchers, as well as 3,000 beach balls.

Other collaborations include ones with World Duty Free (which is offering two new flavours of Edinburgh Gin), a local brewery and a local confectionary company both of which will offer ‘bespoke products’ for passengers.