The world’s largest airport retailer Dubai Duty Free has reached year-end sales of $1.25 billion which reflects a 9.6% increase compared to $1.14 billion sales that Duty free at Dubai airport achieved in 2009.
Dubai Duty Free can reflect on another busy and successful year that has seen a number of significant developments for the operation who continue to hold the top slot as the single largest airport retailer in the world.
There are a lot of reasons to achieve continuous growth in sales as the number of passengers using Dubai International Airport is growing every month.
Dubai Airport’s passenger traffic surpassed the 4 million mark for the second consecutive month in November and for the third time in 2010.
Last month, Dubai airport handled over 4 million passengers, up 15.1% from the 3.5 million in November 2009. Year-to-date passenger numbers reached 42.9 million compared to over 37 million recorded in the corresponding period in 2009, showing an increase of 15.6%.
Dubai Duty Free
In addition to passenger numbers at Dubai Airport, a significant increase in retail space is also one of the reasons for rising sales. Dubai Duty Free retail spaced jump by 8,000 square metres 2 years ago when the dedicated Emirates Terminal 3 was inaugurated. Another 8,000 square metres of space will be added with the opening of Concourse 3 which is scheduled to open in 2012 for the A380 super-jumbo jet.
This month, Dubai Duty Free celebrated its 27th anniversary and said sales figure of Dhs 66.7 million is 6.8% higher than last year’s anniversary on December 20th when it celebrated its 26th anniversary.
The statistics highlight the huge volume of sales that passed through the cash points within the 24-hour period. From a category point of view, Perfumes at Dubai duty free was the highest selling category with sales of Dh 21.8 million and representing 33% of the total daily sales. Watches and Clocks was the 2nd most popular category on the anniversary day with sales of Dh 17.6 million. Cosmetics came in at 3rd place category wise with sales of Dh 5.4 million.