Tocumen duty free area up for grabs

THE DUTY FREE  shopping area at Tocumen International Airport , which has been operated  since 2007  by Waked International, S.A. (Wisa) and Motta International will be up for tender between August and September.

The  concession expires on December 31, 2017, and the tender was  originally scheduled for the last quarter of the year. but is now planned for between August and September.

Joseph Fidanque III, manager of Tocumen SA, said the inclusion of the Waked group in the Clinton List changed the plans of the airport

Being included on this list, Wisa cannot perform transactions with US companies, a situation that has affected the operation of the company which can only receive cash transactions, and not accept credit cards.

Fidanque III said the airport  board  does not have the ability  to remove the Wisa concession after it  was included in the Clinton List but warns that if the company violates its contract by not paying royalties to Tocumen, the authority will have to  take a decision.

Nine years ago the Wisa and Motta groups together paid $ 173 million for the marketing of products at the airport

La Riviera, Burberry, Brooks Brothers and Columbia are some of the Wisa Group stores in Tocumen which together provide 7% of commercial revenues of the airport.

Fidanque III said  that the new tender will seek two operators, but exclude some brands and products and  make separate awards.

Unlike the 2007 tender, Tocumen will  increase the percentage of monthly royalties to be paid by new operators, and decrease payment for the key rights.

“We do not want to raise a lot of capital to avoid repeating what happened 9 years ago when the funds obtained from the bidding for the duty free were used for projects outside the airport,” said Fidanque III.

The tender for the new Terminal 2 is scheduled for early next year.