daa International has pledged to turn King Abdulaziz International Airport into one of the world’s leading hub airports
SAUDI ARABIA. Aer Rianta International (ARI) has announced that Director of Retail, ARI Ireland Paul Neeson will join sister company daa International as Chief Commercial Officer at Jeddah King Abdulaziz International Airport. The move takes effect from April. ARI is seeking a new Director of Retail for its Irish operations.
As reported earlier, daa International has been awarded a five-year management contract at King Abdulaziz International Airport (KAIA) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
ARI Chief Executive Officer Ray Hernan said: “Today ARI announces that Paul Neeson will join the daa International team in Saudi Arabia. With over 20 years’ experience in travel retail, Paul’s talent, formidable skillset, and his ability to successfully drive the development of world-class retail concepts and offerings stands testament to him. Paul has been an instrumental part of the ARI team. We will miss him greatly and wish him well with this exciting new opportunity as part of the wider daa Group.”
Neeson commented: “I am thrilled to be joining the daa International team in April in a ground-breaking new adventure. My drive to create the best customer experience possible is something I will carry tirelessly into my new role. I will sorely miss working with Ray and the incredible team at ARI at a time when ARI move into a major expansion programme in Portugal and with an ambitious vision for further growth. The ARI team are quite phenomenal and I thank everyone for their unwavering support and best wishes for the future.”
Neeson, a well-known and highly respected figure in the travel retail industry, has worked for ARI since 2000. The company said he had brought “great leadership, business acumen, passion, and innovation” to his retail role, which would benefit daa International.
daa International is part of daa, a global airports and travel retail company with businesses in 16 countries. The group is owned by the Irish State and headquartered at Dublin Airport.
daa owns and manages Dublin and Cork airports and has international airport operations and investments in Cyprus, Germany and Saudi Arabia.
Travel retail subsidiary ARI has stores in Europe, North America, the Middle East, India and Asia Pacific.
