TOP 10 AIRPORTS: INTRODUCTION


Sales slide -1% to $12.55bn at Top 10 DF&TR Airports


In what can be described as a stable year for many in 2019, duty free & travel retail sales registered by the world’s Top 10 Airports reached a very reputable $12.55bn. However, a fractional sales decline of -1% reflects challenging trading conditions for a few, including the early impacts of Covid-19. Charlotte Turner reports.


W


hile it is clear that retail sales for the world’s top 10 airports – as ranked


by total duty free & retail sales – have been all but obliterated in 2020, 2019 was thankfully a stable year for the majority of airports in this list. However, a couple faced difficult


trading conditions last year. In Hong Kong, social unrest was ignited by the notorious extradition bill (which was withdrawn in September of last year), while Dubai International (DXB) had to close its third runway for a period of 45 days. Furthermore, those airports that were only able to share FY2019/2020 figures (Hong Kong International Airport and Tokyo Narita) for the year ending 31 March 2020, reported sales declines as a result of the early impacts of the coronavirus (Covid-19). Even Incheon Airport, which has


become known for its impressive year-on-year sales growth in previous Top 10 editions, posted a marginal 2.7% increase in sales to US$2.43bn. To put this in perspective, the airport registered a near 15% jump in sales between 2017 and 2018. Still, the airport operator (IIAC)


described its 2019 performance as ‘outstanding’ and attributed it to increased passenger traffic, renovations at several departure duty free shops and the successful opening of South Korea’s first arrivals duty free shops. Luke Barras-Hill notes on p23 that


growth of +2.7% is certainly more muted compared with previous years, with IIAC putting much of this down to currency-related losses in the first half of 2019. Currency-related losses have


indeed plagued third-placed Dubai International in recent years, as has been revealed by the airport’s travel


AUGUST 2020


The new Istanbul Airport still made the Top 10 Airports despite only being operational for nine months since April 2019.


retail operator Dubai Duty Free on numerous occasions. However, unfavourable FX was not chiefly to blame for the challenges DDF faced in 2019.


China ups the pace Home to long-haul carrier Emirates, DXB registered 86.4 million passengers in 2019, down just 3% from 2018. But this was still an impressive six million more passengers than that of closest rival, London Heathrow Airport. But the 3% slide in passengers trading


made conditions


significantly more challenging for DDF, who against the odds was still able to exceed $2bn once again. The final result reported by the


company for last year was $2.029bn in sales, representing a fractional increase of 0.7% on the $2.015bn posted in 2018.


While growth in traffic and retail sales was hard to come by in 2019 for some, Beijing and Shanghai airports had much more positive news to report, especially Beijing Capital International Airport Company Limited. Its retail revenue increase was driven by the performance of new duty free contracts and ‘increased average purchasing power of passengers’, said the operator in a financial statement. New duty free contracts at BCIA


Terminal 2 (China Duty Free Group) and Terminal 3 (Sunrise Duty Free – China), effective 11 February 2018 contributed to a non-aeronautical revenue increase of +12.9% to RMB6,721,739,000m/$960m yoy. As a consequence, non-


aeronautical revenue accounted for more than 60% of total company revenue for the first time. While the airports of mainland


Exclusive new data for 2020 Top 10 airports table


This year, TRBusiness is delighted to be able to share exclusive data from m1nd-set’s Business Intelligence Service (B1S). This includes international departures information in addition to ‘Key Shopping Insights’ for each airport appearing in our Top 10 table. While m1nd-set has provided data on the number of international departures (not including domestic traffic) for each airport, it has also provided a forecast for 2020, including the percentage decline anticipated.


TRBUSINESS 17


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