Dubai Airport 'Concourse A' goes live

The world's first airport terminal dedicated to the A380 aircraft has commenced operations, with 100% of its food and beverage outlets open for trade.

Concourse A is one of the largest buildings on earth by volume, with capacity for 30 million passengers a year from 20 gates built to take the A380. It serves Emirates and its partner Qantas, and forms part of Dubai Airports' USD 20 billion capital works programme.

Vindico Retail worked alongside Dubai Airports, the terminal's concessionaires and their designers and suppliers to manage the retail delivery process. Mark Holmans, Project Director, notes that the team put the process on hold the day after being appointed, in order to assess the technical scopes, establish where the concessionaires were heading on design and realign the stakeholders inside a tight programme.

Airports differ from malls when it comes to retail design, where a greater interdependency affords more opportunity, and responsibility, for the airport, its concessionaire and brands to work closer together. In Concourse A, we have come through a robust design debate with a better outcome for each of these groups.
Linda Mitchell, Director overseeing design, Vindico Retail

Vindico's role covered tenant coordination and design review on behalf of Dubai Airports. The fit-out of each outlet was delivered by the concessionaires and their contractors.