Airport Ads and Global Out of Home Media Support ACI Africa General Assembly

Airport Ads® in association with Global Out of Home Media recently played a key sponsorship role in the Airports Council International Africa’s 27th Annual General Assembly, Regional Conference and Exhibition, which took place in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire from the 13^th to the 19^th of October.

Airports Council International (ACI) is the only global trade representative of the world’s airports and represents their interests with governments and international organizations such as the International Civil Aviation Organization, develops standards, policies and recommended practices for airports, and provides information and training opportunities to raise standards around the world.

The theme of this year’s ACI Africa event was “Challenges of safety and security in African airports, issues and perspectives” and it was attended by regional and global leaders from the airport industry, government officials and regulators, who were all on hand to discuss African airport safety and security, while exploring innovative solutions and addressing the upcoming challenges of aviation in the region.

With this in mind, the purpose of the joint sponsorship was to strengthen ties with its various partners and to forge new relationships, with the purpose of ultimately servicing the growing needs of airports across the African continent.

Airport Ads® – a division of the Provantage Media Group – is South Africa’s leading airport advertising concessionaire and believes it can play a strategic role in driving the growth of non-aeronautical revenue (NAR) for Africa’s airport operators.

Airport Ads® delivers effective advertising solutions at 23 airports across Africa, together with PMG’s Global Out of Home Media division, which operates over 2,100 strategically positioned sites in key markets on the continent. At the forefront of digital airport advertising, Airport Ads® has over 1,600 digital screens delivering a mix of news and brand messaging on Airport.TV, a place-based digital network of screens located in high dwell zones that adds value to the passenger experience and journey. This is bolstered by Airport Ads’® large format Visionet digital billboards.

As the businesses expand their operations across Africa, there has been huge interest from several of the largest airports on the continent in the service, knowledge and skill Airport Ads® can deliver on the NAR front.

PMG was represented in Abidjan by Deputy CEO Mzi Deliwe, who is also the head of Airport Ads®, and Sylvain Rouch, GM at Global Out Of Home Media. Deliwe delivered the keynote speech at the event’s gala dinner – which was attended by a number of dignitaries – during which he was able to touch on key trends and insights, and the value of NAR to airport concessioners.All around the world, airports rely on non-aeronautical revenue such as retail concessions, advertising, car parking, property and real estate to maintain their facilities and provide high quality service.

The average revenue derived from NAR is in the region of 40% globally and overall it’s a US$63.5bn industry. This is an important revenue stream that adds immediate value to the bottom line for airport operators, but Africa’s airports are lagging behind. On the continent, less than 20% of airports’ revenues generated is commercial.

Analysts forecast that the global airport NAR market is set to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8.95% through to 2021, which means that Africa’s airports have a huge opportunity to transform and unlock the potential available from this revenue stream.

The businesses’ continued initiatives aimed at supporting current offerings and growing their overall African airports footprint ensures that operators and brands alike are provided with the best possible advertising revenue streams and solutions continent wide.