An Ospree takes flight amid some InDelhible memories

An enthralling few days in Delhi at a generally excellent APTRA India Conference taught me many things. Primary among them perhaps, that I need to spend more time in India.

Until the damned pandemic came along I was a regular visitor to the country. But even during the subsequent hiatus I and we have focused relentlessly on it. We have featured a dedicated India section on our website for many years and over our more than two-decade history we have given more coverage to India’s travel retail market (from airport duty free to specialist retail, advertising and food & beverage) than all our rivals combined.

It’s hard to believe that it’s almost 17 years since I embarked on an amazing tour of some of India’s most exciting airport development projects, all then at construction stage.

In a magical few days in July 2007, I visited what were then greenfield airports still in the making in Hyderabad and Bangalore; witnessed the hugely ambitious redevelopments of Delhi and Mumbai airports; and was charmed by the beautifully localised theming of Cochin International Airport.

That month on this very Blog I wrote, “Indian aviation is constantly hitting new heights and smashing growth records. A ground-to-air revolution is being played out here and everyone wants a part of the action.”

So very much has happened since. Apart from the horrendous COVID-19 crisis – which began with India’s first confirmed case on 30 January 2020 followed soon after by a 21-day nationwide lockdown on 24 March – progress has been startling. India is not the next big thing anymore. It has arrived. All the projects I mentioned are long since completed. Many more are taking shape as I write.

In her keynote conference address, Director General Tourism for the Government of India Manisha Saxena noted that 78 new airports had been built in the past decade. Each one of them, whether big or small, bringing travel retail opportunities. The project development pipeline is full to overflowing.

Those opportunities – and realities – were spelled out time and again through the APTRA India Conference, notably in the outstanding addresses from Delhi Duty Free Services CEO Ashish Chopra; Bengaluru Airport Vice President Commercial Pravat Paikray; and Noida International Airport Chief Commercial Officer Prashant Gaurav Gupta.

Most emphatically of all, the rich opportunities ahead were underlined by the big reveal on Tuesday of Ospree, the new name and brand identity of Mumbai Travel Retail Private Limited (the joint venture between Adani Airport Holdings and Flemingo Travel Retail).

Welcoming guests to the event Adani Airport Holdings CEO – Non Aero Harshad Jain said: “The tailwinds that we are seeing behind travel are absolutely unprecedented.”

Supporting that claim, he added: “In the next three to four years, India will have over 700 million people who are going to be travelling. That means out of our 1.4 billion population, 50% of the people… will be travelling. And this has a direct impact on what we see in terms of consumption.”

Following Jain to the stage, Mumbai Travel Retail Private Limited CEO Avishek Bambii Das said: “We have always been a company that punches way above our weight… and we intend to continue that journey.”

Das hinted at exactly how – and in what guise – that journey would be continued in the form of an anecdote.

“Let me tell you a story,” he began. “It is the story of a bird – a bird that fascinated me. We are a passionate bunch and we work pretty late into the night… and one night I came across this interesting story about a bird that flies 5,000 miles to come to India and then goes back during migration. 5,000 miles. That’s, say, from Mumbai to London, or Mumbai to Perth – countries that we want to get into.

“That bird is much smaller than an eagle and much smaller than any of the large birds that you would have heard of. But it flies faster than them. It’s an agile bird that flies faster than the biggies, goes 5,000 miles and guess what? It’s among the birds that has the best long-term vision – it sees its prey miles away.

“That sounds a lot like us, right? We fly faster than our competition. We are more aggressive than our competition – in a good way. And we have a long-term vision based on microscopic details that we focus on daily. And today, our new ambition starts with the identity inspired by this bird [the Osprey, from which Ospree takes its name].”

The reveal came just a day after Eurotunnel appointed newly created Mumbai Travel Retail Private Limited subsidiary Le Marché Duty-Free to manage the duty-free business at Eurotunnel’s French terminal in Coquelles, near Calais – “planting a flag right in Europe” as Das put it.

Make no mistake, this travel retail equivalent of a fast-flying bird of prey will be planting plenty more flags offshore. To change the allusion, I suspect Ospree won’t be punching above its weight much longer but will be very much established within the heavyweight ranks.

The same can be said for Indian aviation and travel retail as a whole. Look at the hugely impressive emergence of Travel Food Services as a tour de force in airport food & beverage and lounge services – I spoke at the company’s launch in Mumbai in May 2009, how time has flown since – for another prime example.

Don’t turn away for a moment, you’re bound to miss something.

India, I had been away too long. My next visit will be a whole lot sooner. I leave with unforgettable memories. InDelhible ones, you might say. ✈