One of the world’s busiest international airports will have a new managing director co-running its retail business from January 1, 2025, when Gordana Schiel takes the reins—a year ahead of a huge additional shopping offer to be inaugurated at the Lufthansa hub in 2026.
Frankfurt Airport Retail (FAR)—the 50:50 joint venture between Fraport, the listed operator of Frankfurt Airport, and Hamburg-based travel retailer Gebr. Heinemann—has appointed Schiel to its top team alongside Georg Fuhrmann, who represents Fraport and has held his managing director role for eight years.
Schiel will be taking a big step up when she leaves her current role as managing director of the much smaller Düsseldorf Duty Free where she has been in charge since January 2023. Düsseldorf Airport is Germany’s fourth busiest gateway handling just over 19 million passengers in 2023 whereas Frankfurt Airport processed more than triple that number at 59.4 million. The retail area at the hub is also more than three times as big.
Nevertheless, Schiel is said to have skillfully managed the location after family-owned Heinemann, founded in 1879, returned to Düsseldorf after a decade’s absence, ousting World Duty Free, an Avolta company.
Heinemann, led by fifth-generation co-CEO Max Heinemann, expressed confidence in the decision to promote Schiel, who first joined the company as a retail management trainee in 2012. Florian Seidel, chief sales officer commented: “Gordana has proven herself to be an outstanding leader. I am convinced she will further develop the business in Frankfurt with fresh ideas and a clear focus on customer satisfaction.”
Leadership on a different level
FAR operates more than 30 stores at Germany’s primary hub airport, including large duty-free shops, luxury boutiques, and premium branded stores. The joint venture employs about 640 people across a total retail area of approximately 130,000 square feet.
Schiel replaces Richard Hoyer at FAR after less than two years in the MD role. The Heinemann veteran returns to company headquarters in Hamburg’s HafenCity as vice president of sales for Asia Pacific & Transition Management.
FAR’s business made a key contribution to Heinemann’s revenue last year which reached almost $4 billion. Frankfurt Airport was the retailer’s fourth biggest revenue earner after the gateways of Istanbul, Oslo, and Tel Aviv.
While a weakening German economy and reduced consumer spending have impacted the European Union’s largest market, Frankfurt Airport has, so far, managed to shrug this off thanks to rising passenger numbers.
Will retail spending hold up?
Nine-month results from Fraport, released in early November, showed traffic up by 5% at Frankfurt, driving an increase of 7.2% in the retail and real estate segment to €392 million ($415 million).
Fraport—which has an international airport footprint—said that the growth at its core gateway was mainly due to higher retail and parking revenue with net retail revenue per passenger also trending slightly up to €3.13 from €3.04 in the same period last year. However, across the full year (2023), net retail revenue per pax was higher at €3.30 so the coming Christmas season will determine how robust passenger spending really is.
Schiel is taking a leadership role at FAR at a key time as Frankfurt is completing its retail plans for Terminal 3, one of the largest infrastructure projects in Europe. The terminal is set to open in 2026 and will add passenger capacity of 19 million initially, along with a marketplace retail area covering around 65,000 square feet.