Finavia has been strongly developing its food and beverage (F&B) offering and actively taking part in travel retail industry dialogue for the past few years. The company also successfully staged the ACI Commercial event in 2016.
“I think these, on top of some other qualities, led us and The Moodie Davitt Report, the event organiser, to a mutual conclusion: that arranging a FAB event in Helsinki might be a real ‘match made in HEL’,” says Elena Stenholm, Vice President of Commercial Services at Finavia.
Finavia views this as a wonderful industry recognition and a chance to highlight what Helsinki Airport, Helsinki and Finland have to offer the food and beverage industry.
A fine art in itself
Stenholm shares that through deep partnerships, Finavia has learned a great deal about customer needs in relation to the passenger journey, international brands and benchmarks, as well as industry-specific processes and requirements.
“F&B at airports is a fine art in itself, having to take into account many special features like security issues and varying customer needs of different nationalities and segments. Passengers also have varying amounts of time e to spend on eating and drinking at the airport.”
She points out that Finavia works hard together with its partners to offer air passengers as smooth and memorable customer experience as possible with regard to its food and beverage selection.
“We welcome new restaurant concepts here that are unique to our markets. Our more than 20 million annual passengers offer any restaurant an interesting and international customer base.”
Showcasing Finnish concepts
For its part, Finavia is looking forward to sharing examples of its local Sense of Place, for instance.
“We are ready to showcase all the work that our partners have done to add that final touch to the local, recognisably Finnish concepts that we have developed together. The food offering is based on fresh and locally produced and freshly prepared food and beverages, a concept that goes hand in hand with Finland's natural environment – the world's best drinking water and pure quality,” continues Stenholm.
Finavia is also very proud and happy to be nominated in four 2018 FAB award categories. These are Marketing Campaign, Customer Service Initiative, Sense of Place and F&B Offer of the Year.
A tour of Helsinki Airport is part of this year’s event. “There we wish to share what we have achieved, for example, by our differentiating and highly successful marketing campaign #LIFEINHEL, and joint efforts in developing the level of personal service, like the CX Academy,” she says.
A tour of Helsinki Airport is part of this year’s event.
“FAB delegates taking part in the Helsinki Airport tour will explore the airport as a food destination while visiting some of our most impressive and recognised F&B units. Together with our partners SSP and HMSHost, we will pamper our guests with some local tastes and design,” says Satu Orismaa, F&B Commercial Manager at Finavia.
Growing future prospects
“We are a very reliable airport, as well as an ambitious one in developing our passenger experience. For the food and beverage concessionaires we can promise interesting international passenger profiles and bright, quickly growing future prospects when it comes to our position as a top hub between Europe and Asia. I believe that is what makes us a very interesting partner,” Stenholm concludes.
Read more on the upcoming new restaurants at Helsinki Airport
