Iberia

Spain’s flagship airline offers retail services on all medium and long-haul international routes. All duty-free trolleys are loaded and off-loaded from Madrid Barajas airport. In 2007, Iberia out-sourced its previously self-operated duty-free operations to an experienced specialized US company, Duty Free World.

The problem

The five-year contract came to an abrupt ending after less than 24 months. The problem that led to this unpreecedented conclusion can be better expressed than by the concessionnaire’s own words. Speaking to The Moodie Report in june 2009, a DFW spokesperson blamed “the exorbitant theft losses in Madrid Airport that have exceeded €3 million to date“. This figure would translate in monthly losses of circa €130.000.

Moodie Report post – June 19th, 2009

The spokesperson added: “This loss has been in spite of involving authorities, installing high-level security devices, personnel and procedures (…). Our core business became security and surveillance“.

The solution

The business had to be re-tendered. The newly-appointed concessionnaire duly instructed of its predecessor’s problem opted for the SafeTrolley™ system. Working closely with the local ground logistic service contractor,  StepBeacons were installed in all key areas. Despite the fact the new operation started up in December – a challenging month for duty-free carts integrity -theft losses were immediatly divided by a factor of 15.