Exclusive: Talking retail and F&B with Tom Hack as AGS Airports plans major investment

UK. AviAlliance, which owns Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton airports operator AGS Airports, recently announced a major investment across the three UK travel hubs.

AGS Airports Group Retail Director Tom Hack speaks exclusively to The Moodie Davitt Report Senior Business Editor Mark Lane about how the capital injection will bring significant retail, food & beverage and passenger experience improvements to the airports, which are set for substantial traffic growth.

When AviAlliance completed its acquisition of UK airport operator AGS Airports in a £1.53 billion (US$2 billion) deal in January this year, Managing Director Gerhard Schroeder pledged to deliver a passenger experience transformation across the key AGS assets Glasgow, Aberdeen and Southampton airports.

Just a few months later, AviAlliance has signalled its intention to make good on that promise with the announcement of a £350 million (US$464.6 million) investment in future growth across the three travel hubs. It will deliver the single largest capital investment programme in the airports since AGS Airports was formed in 2014.

AGS Airports Group Retail Director Tom Hack tells the Moodie Davitt Report that some of that fresh capital will lead to a series of retail and food & beverage programme improvements, with the busiest of the three airports, Glasgow, the main beneficiary.

The main terminal building at Glasgow Airport was built in 1966 and has had numerous smaller extensions over the following decades, but the time has come for a transformation, according to Hack.

“At Glasgow, we need to ensure we are future-proofing the retail offer by allocating the right amount of space by category to take us up to 13 million passengers a year by the mid 2030s [8.3 million passengers were served in 2024],” he says. “From a passenger viewpoint, our focus will be on short-haul leisure and business connectivity and long-haul leisure destinations.

“Presently, we are close to our F&B capacity in certain peak summer days and with a healthy passenger growth trajectory, we need to ensure we can match supply with demand. We also need to enhance the environment in which we are showcasing the retail brands.”

To this end, Hack says the intention is to create an intuitive customer flow through Glasgow Airport, facilitated by a large extension and modernisation of the departure lounge, including a reconfiguration of the existing retail and F&B offer.

“AviAlliance has brought ambition and vision,” he continues. “Their aim is to work at pace and deliver the vast number of changes by the end of the decade. Our retail strategy will be a major driver of terminal developments.

“The project will deliver contemporary and memorable aesthetics inspired by the exceptional landscapes of west Scotland and the vibrant Glaswegian culture,” Hack notes, adding that the investment will enable the AGS team to take a holistic view of the airport in terms of its operational processes, design and passenger journey.

AGS receives no public funding, so all investments must come with a strong business case. “We know that for every minute of airside dwell lost to queues or uncertainty, we lose retail spend, as well as a bit of the customers’ confidence in us,” admits Hack. “All our income and capital spend must ultimately be self-generating.

“With the majority of our income coming from non-aeronautical activities, it’s incumbent on all airport departments to ensure we are optimising every step of the customer journey.

“We want to ensure our passengers can pass through all the airline and airport processes as efficiently and in as friendly a manner as possible so they have longer to relax in the departure lounge where their holiday really starts. Our vision is to make Glasgow the airport of choice for central Scotland.”

The Glasgow Airport retail and F&B programme currently involves 16 operators running 40 units. Hack reveals this will be bolstered this summer with TRGC opening Sanfords American Diner (replacing Frankie & Benny’s) and Italian café bar brand Primo Volo.

Asked about potential disruptions from the upcoming projects for existing retail/F&B operators, he says the intention is to construct the departure lounge extension first from as early as late 2027 and then reconfigure the existing airside commercial layout and deliver the “much-needed aesthetic enhancements” the following year.

“When the extension opens, this will change the route through the departure lounge which will mean changing some of the existing units,” Hack notes. “Detailed plans are still being worked on and once we have these, we will be engaging further with our existing partners to gather their views before we can finesse and finalise the designs and layout.”

On tendering strategy, he says the aim is to issue Requests for Proposals (RFPs) a year out from the build so the construction work can be carried out knowing the occupants of the completed project, enabling an incorporation of the retailers’ visions and plans from the start.

Retail and F&B facilities at Southampton Airport on England’s south coast, where passengers are projected to double to around 2 million by 2030, will also be a main beneficiary of the AviAlliance investment.

“Southampton is anticipating 1 million passengers will travel through its doors this year and the current retail offer matches these volumes,  however the F&B provision needs to be enhanced,” says Hack, who says significant changes in the F&B offer at the airport will be announced shortly.

He says the vision is for Southampton to deliver material increases in leisure traffic which means larger aircraft will put more pressure on existing facilities.

“This change in passenger mix will also require an evolution of the retail and F&B offer,” he adds. “The plan at Southampton is to extend the terminal and ensure we can have the right amount of retail and F&B space to accommodate the growing volume of passengers.

“We want to generate the most optimal returns from that space as well as ensuring that we can provide a modern and relaxing airside experience for passengers. Therefore, we will see an increase in commercial space as well as overall passenger processing space.”

Much potential is foreseen by AGS at Southampton, which has one of the largest metropolitan populations within the UK. The core catchment (within 30 miles) has an estimated 8 million air journeys a year, with most of the volume currently leaking to the major London airports, Heathrow and Gatwick.

Hack comments, “We want to provide the local population with the route network and opportunities to fly from their local airport, with a particular focus on providing connectivity to leisure destinations in Spain, Italy and France. Our target is to more than double current passenger numbers at Southampton, and, given the local demographics, we strongly believe we can achieve that.”

The final hub in the AGS portfolio, Aberdeen Airport, will see only minor changes in terms of commercial offering via the new AviAlliance investment, having completed its terminal extension and transformation in 2019. “It’s ahead of the other two AGS airports in terms of having a more modern facility, layout and design,” observes Hack. “There will be some further changes at Aberdeen with the airside retail space being changed to meet the needs of each category.”

AGS Airports’ recently appointed Chief Executive Kam Jandu sums up what the AviAlliance capital programme will achieve across the three airports. He says, “We have ambitious plans for the long-term, sustainable growth of our airports, including the strengthening of our connectivity which underpins the success of the regions we serve.

“This significant investment will not only enhance the fabric of our airports. It will also enhance the role they currently play in facilitating trade and tourism.”