With the Curaçao Airport terminal doubling in size soon…

Willemstad – As Curaçao Airport Partners moves onward and on schedule with the airport expansion project, it has already taken grand leaps towards enhancing the airport experience passengers can expect as of 2019. Two renowned local companies have won the opportunity to offer their services at the airport.  ‘Penha’ has been chosen to deliver and operate the new Duty Free walk-through concept, both in the Departures and Arrivals hall, which will be four (4) times the current duty-free area. Café Barista (The Coffee Factory) will operate a grand-variety food-court and bar in the Departures terminal. Both companies will combine the demand for a high-end innovative experience with the local Curaçao touch and charm.

RFP Process
As part of the airport expansion, CAP created a location for a future food-court as well as a full service bar. An RFP process started off in November 2017, wherein CAP sought a company that could exploit the location, while being focused on providing superior customer service and high quality food and beverage. The RFP was published on various platforms, and in addition CAP also invited all companies that had shown interest in performing F&B services at the airport. Seven (7) companies initially showed interest and finally five (5) participated in the bidding. Based on the technical and financial evaluation Café Barista was selected as the overall winner of the RFP process. Both local as well as international companies participated with very competitive and qualitatively very high proposals, making it a challenging yet exciting task for CAP to select the most fitting proposal.

Ground-handlers
Curaçao Airport Partners (CAP) has also held an RFP process for the ground-handling services at the airport. These are the companies hired by the airlines to represent the airlines for passenger services, operation of the check-in counters, to marshal aircrafts, to operate the bridges, to care for the luggage and much more. CAP requested competitive proposals from experienced ground-handling and passenger service companies, interested in providing superior customer service for all commercial air carriers operating at our airport. CAP received business proposals from three companies (of which two local and one international). After the extensive evaluation, CAP assigned the concession to local companies Antillean Flight Services and Swissport Curaçao.

Food court
Curaçao Airport Partners signed a five year agreement with Penha and will soon sign an agreement with Café Barista. The new food court will open its doors simultaneously with the completion and inauguration of the expanded airport terminal. Penha opens its Arrivals Hall walk-through Duty-Free store as of this summer. The walk-through Duty Free store in the Departures area will be inaugurated when the airport expansion project has finalized end-2018.