Lucy Thomas is the Head of Retail for Auckland Airport, New Zealand’s busiest airport, owned and operated by one of New Zealand’s largest publicly listed companies. Lucy leads the team responsible for both the international and domestic terminal retail across all categories (duty free, F&B, specialty, paid media, services etc); managing everything retail from the operations, leasing and marketing to business, terminal and other strategic developments.

Prior to joining the airport, Lucy had a consumer insight background. With over 14 years airport experience, Lucy has held four different roles at Auckland Airport, all with a strong retail and commercial focus. Her previous roles have encompassed passenger experience development, marketing, managing the airport’s paid media concession, delivering pan-business insight as well as leading commercial business development. Lucy led the tenders for the major contracts in duty free, advertising and currency exchange and headed the team delivering the expanded retail & F&B experience in the 2017 international departures project. Lucy joined the APTRA Board in 2020 and is representing airports in Oceania who often face similar challenges in the region.