World’s largest Aelia Duty Free store opens in Rome

Lagardère Travel Retail and Aeroporti di Roma (ADR) are thrilled to announce the official opening today of the largest store of the world-renowned Aelia Duty free brand. Opening after a large-scale refurbishment of the airport’s Hub East terminal, the store focuses on offering unique customer experiences, over nearly 3,000 sqm of commercial surface.

In the brand new environment of Rome Fiumicino’s Hub East terminal (Terminal 1), Lagardère Travel Retail is bringing the globally-recognized, award-winning Aelia Duty Free concept to a new level to create unique experiences for travellers. This opening, which takes place after nearly two years of crisis and at the onset of a fifth wave of the epidemic, is testament to the very strong partnership between Lagardère Travel Retail and ADR. Both partners have worked closely together to achieve their goals and prove that with close collaboration, deep understanding of each other needs and shared values, ambitions can materialize even under the most challenging circumstances.

The store’s key features include:

• Emphasis on localness: the Sense of place dimensions has been magnified and spread across the store with, among other things: an area dedicated to Italian beauty brands, a bigger and optimized space for the local fine foods concept “Bottega dei Sapori”, and Italian design everywhere in the store. Aelia Duty Free is committed to bring to travellers a wide range of local brands to meet shopper expectations’ for authenticity but also to support local economies and producers, and reduce its environmental impact with shorter supply chains.

FOCUS ON BOTTEGA DEI SAPORI: the concept offering the best of Italian gastronomy (including a fresh offer) improved with an iconic design and immersive categories to better grasp travellers’ attention as the navigate through the space. The concept’s storytelling has also been improved, with tasting opportunities at multiple touchpoints in the area (wine, chocolate, biscuits, limoncello, olive oil, pasta….)

• Tailor-made brand experiences & animations: The store offers one of the widest range of Italian and global brand references across the Duty Free industry. Lagardère Travel Retail has worked hand-in-hand with its global brand partners to best embody their DNAs in Rome and create experiences that travellers cannot find anywhere else. New in-store animation include masterclasses and engaging, interactive brand animation: live demo of cocktails, chocolate tasting, flash make-up or perfumes testing.

• Extended phygital capabilities to enhance customer experience: virtual trial make-up, digital totem, enriched content, new Masterclass brand animation, click & collect service. Highlights of best-sellers and novelties, an immersive toys area, and a “World of Italy” souvenirs area are also calling on digital features to best showcase the product offering and create seamless customer experiences

Finally, the new store offers a broader promotional offer, best sellers and travel exclusives to best support the unique value proposition of Duty Free to travellers and reinforce its competitive price positioning.

Alberto Niero, CEO Lagardère Travel Retail, Italy, said: “It is with great pleasure that today we announce the opening of a new store in the Domestic/ Schengen terminal of Rome Fiumicino Airport. With a total floor area of about 3,000 sqm, it is one of the largest duty free stores in the world and the largest managed by Lagardère Travel Retail. The new store is a clear sign of Lagardère’s trust and faith in the future of the travel retail industry. In partnership with ADR, we went through many successes as well as extremely difficult situations such as the dramatic drop in traffic during the Covid pandemic. Together we completed a very ambitious project and are confident that this new store will strongly contribute to us achieving our goals.”

Marco Troncone, CEO of Aeroporti di Roma, said: “The opening of the largest Aelia Duty Free in the world at Fiumicino airport represents a significant acknowledgment of the airport’s potential, as well as an encouraging sign of recovery. This new shop, which is part of the ongoing renovation and expansion plan of Fiumicino, will be the gateway to the new large Domestic/Schengen area scheduled to open next spring, and will contribute to offer passengers the best experience; an experience that, even when it comes to retail, is increasingly oriented towards innovation, customization and engagement.”