PTE preview: Fraser Brown, Retail Director, Heathrow Airport

How is Heathrow evolving its retail offering to meet changing passenger expectations?

Heathrow’s retail proposition is always evolving, although the pace of change has accelerated in recent years as passenger expectations shift and as they adapt to the abolishment of tax‑free shopping for international visitors. Drawing on insights from our concession partners, brands, primary research and in‑house expertise, we continually review and refine our offer.

To make the best use of the limited retail footprint in our terminals, we regularly assess how space is used and adapt it to reflect passenger demand and improve the overall shopping experience. This approach has led to the introduction of new concepts such as Blended Essentials in Terminal 2 and our first quick service restaurant, Five Guys, which opened in Terminal 5 last year. We have also reshaped the foreign currency category by tendering and rethinking its presence in the airport to ensure it remains relevant, engaging and commercially resilient.

How do you balance luxury, convenience and sustainability in your retail mix?

We strike a balance between luxury, convenience and sustainability through thoughtful space planning and by understanding the role each category plays in the passenger journey. Our first priority is to ensure essential services such as food & beverage, duty free and travel essentials are available at the right scale to meet passenger need. As the world’s most‑connected airport, we also recognise the importance of providing a broad commercial offering and a wide range of luxury brands that meet the expectations of more than 84 million passengers travelling to 230 destinations worldwide, each year.

At the same time, we are focused on the commitments set out in our Connecting People and Planet sustainability strategy. Our procurement process ensures that partners and suppliers align with Heathrow’s decarbonisation and environmental goals so that the choices available to passengers are both responsible and appealing.

What trends in passenger behaviour are shaping your retail strategy for 2026 and beyond?

Several trends are shaping our plans for 2026 and the years ahead. Post‑pandemic dwell times remain high, creating more opportunities for engagement, particularly across food and beverage. We have also seen a shift in the passenger mix, with fewer business travellers and more leisure passengers, which brings different priorities and spending habits.

Pre‑trip browsing is becoming more popular, and more purchases are being made in advance through our website. Passengers are using our digital services to explore the offer, compare prices and judge value before they travel. Gifting remains a strong and growing category, particularly for British products that provide a sense of place and offer meaningful mementos for friends and family. All these behaviours help shape our commercial strategy and ensure our offer feels timely and relevant.

What impact do technologies like mobile ordering, click and collect, and AI‑driven recommendations have on airport retail?

Technology certainly influences how we shape our retail proposition, although the way we adopt it depends on passenger need, operational considerations and our business model. Mobile ordering to the gate is something we have explored for food & beverage, although demand has not yet reached a level to make it viable. Click and collect, however, is increasingly aligned with domestic retail trends. Heathrow now has a fully‑functioning digital marketplace that allows passengers to browse a wide range of products, including items not available in our physical stores, and pay before arriving at the airport. With a fulfilment time of just 30 minutes, we can provide greater certainty and convenience in a way that complements, rather than replaces, physical retail.

How do you see data analytics influencing retail decision‑making at Heathrow?

Data has always been, and will continue to be, central to decision making at Heathrow. We use insights on passenger demographics, flow patterns, dwell times and spend per passenger to help shape the retail mix, refine space planning and understand how passengers behave in our terminals, rather than how we think they behave.

Looking ahead, we see significant potential to take this approach further through better use of daily sales data, improved analysis of store penetration and more advanced monitoring of passenger flow. As we work to make every journey better and become an extraordinary airport, fit for the future, data will be critical in ensuring our offer evolves intelligently and remains aligned with passenger expectation.

What will your focus be at PTE? What are you there to talk about or present on?

Passenger Terminal Expo is a great opportunity to connect with colleagues from across the industry and to learn about innovations developing around the world. My focus is on the commercial stream, so I am particularly keen to hear from peers about pre‑trip digital retail engagement and the role of airport websites in shaping the retail journey before passengers even reach the terminal.

I am also interested in how other airports are responding to the rapid growth in food & beverage demand and to the more challenging trading environment for core categories such as beauty and alcohol. These conversations help us benchmark our thinking and ensure Heathrow continues to evolve in line with global standards.

What are you looking forward to learning from other airports at PTE?

As mentioned, PTE is an invaluable forum for sharing knowledge and learning from the experiences of global airports. I am particularly looking forward to hearing how others approach pre‑trip retail, how they are integrating digital channels with physical spaces and how they are responding to changing passenger expectations around value, convenience and sustainability.

PTE allows us to sense‑check our strategy against international trends and bring back ideas that can strengthen Heathrow’s proposition for the millions of passengers who travel through our terminals each year.