Rakhita Jayawardena to deliver closing keynote at Airline Retail confab

Rakhita Jayawardena, founder and President of King Power Traveler, has confirmed he will deliver the closing keynote address at the Airline Retail Conference (ARC2011) on 12 January 2011.

Mr Jayawardena will deliver his address on the subject of “Airlines & Suppliers Working in Partnership”, an issue for which he is uniquely qualified, having managed and operated more than 40 airline concession and supply service contracts globally.

With a career in duty free spanning three decades, Jayawardena has held high-profile positions with Air Lanka and South African Airways and has been President of Inflight Duty Free Shop (New York), Alpha (UK) and now Kingpower Traveler. He was also the founding President of APTRA (the Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association).

ARC event director Alex Vail said, “We are thrilled that Rakhita has agreed to speak at the event. He is well-respected as a true pioneer in the inflight retail industry, and we are all excited to hear his views on partnerships between suppliers and airlines – a unifying threads of the conference.” ARC2011 will take place on Tuesday 11 and Wednesday 12 January at the Grand Hyatt Macau.