Avolta Makes Food Debut In Brazil Via 3-Year São Paulo Contract

Global travel retailer Avolta is opening its first food and beverage (F&B) outlet in Brazil and expanding its existing duty-paid retail space at the country’s second-busiest airport, Congonhas in São Paulo.

The gateway, one of four commercial airports serving Brazil’s most populous city, has been operated by Spain’s Aena since late 2023 following a privatization process that concluded in 2022. Congonhas carried 23.1 million passengers last year according to Brazil’s National Civil Aviation Agency, ANAC, and Aena has plans to boost the attractiveness of the gateway with almost $600 million in upgrades.

Avolta’s expansion at the airport is therefore timely and takes its retail footprint up to nearly 12,000 square feet. Of this, more than half is dedicated to a core duty-free walk-through department store. As part of the contract with Aena Brasil, the rest of the space will include a duty-paid store and the new 3,600-square-foot F&B space called Vista Corona.

A new string to Avolta’s bow in Brazil

Vista Corona will have a full-service restaurant as well as grab-and-go options, with craft drinks and local food forming part of the offer. Avolta’s general manager for Brazil, Gustavo Fagundes, described the opening of the retailer’s first F&B unit in Brazil as “momentous” and said it marked a key moment in Avolta’s growth trajectory in Latin America. “We are taking the airport shopping experience to a new level,” he added.

Aena Brasil’s chief commercial officer Juan José Sánchez said the new retail and F&B operations would be part of a wider offer to passengers at Congonhas Airport in a modern terminal featuring a total of 215,000 square feet of space dedicated to commercial units. The $415 million investment in the new passenger terminal will more than double the current size and will add extra boarding bridges, and other operational improvements.

In total, Aena Brasil runs 17 airports in nine Brazilian states, mostly in the northeast of the country and, in time, most of them are scheduled for upgrades. “We are launching an ambitious expansion and modernization plan in 11 airports including Congonhas, allowing for greater capacity and a more comfortable and efficient travel experience for passengers,” said Sánchez.

Brazil to see stronger retail focus

He added that Aena’s strategy in Brazil was to raise the standard of the commercial offers across all 17 of its airports, but especially in São Paulo because of the high throughput of travellers and higher spending possibilities. Last year, Congonhas accounted for more than half of the 43.3 million passengers going through Aena Brasil’s 17 airports.

In its home market of Spain, Aena operates 46 airports and two heliports. It is also a 51% controlling shareholder in London Luton Airport in the United Kingdom and participates in the management of 12 airports in Mexico, two in Jamaica and one in Colombia.

Aena has a longstanding relationship with Avolta in Spain where the retailer has the core duty-free store concessions at all its airports, led by Madrid and Barcelona. In 2024, Aena, as a landlord, pocketed €1.78 billion ($1.93 billion) in commercial revenue as sales soared by 14.7% in its Spanish network. The parent company is now looking to achieve a similar level of retail revenue share in Brazil.