Lagardère has opened its Aelia Duty Free and Relay shops in 600m² of space at Libreville’s Leon Mba International Airport. The new stores will focus on travel essentials, electronics, local products, gifts and food and beverage products. A foodservice outlet, also operated by Lagardère, will open in mid 2019.
Leon Mba International Airport is the only international airport in Gabon. Fourteen airlines operating from it serve 23 destinations in 15 countries. Libreville is due to get a new international airport in 2021 with the aim of turning it into regional hub. The new airport will have an initial annual capacity of 2m passengers, rising to 5m passengers when fully complete. Lagardère will be allocated a 1,000m² space in the new airport.
Libreville airport is also seeing development on its perimeter. KFC is partnering with Resto Group, the franchise holder for the Paul bakery chain in Gabon. Resto Group has opened the first of three KFC outlets in Libreville by the airport.
In September 2017 we reported that Lagardère Travel Retail had won a 10 year contract for the 1,000m² duty free concession at Senegal’s new Blaise Diagne International Airport, outside Dakar. Lagardère is the third largest duty free retail operator globally after Dufry and Lotte Duty Free. In Africa, the clear market leader is Dufry, which has operations in Cape Verde, Egypt, Algeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco and Nigeria.
