Dubai Duty Free records over $1bn in sales for first eight months of 2022

Dubai Duty Free has recorded $1.06bn in sales for the first eight months of 2022, increasing 104 per cent year-on-year.

The turnover has placed ‘the operation on track to reach its target of $1.6bn by year end’, the airport retailer said in a statement.

Perfumes, liquor, gold, cigarettes and tobacco and electronics retained the top five categories, with perfumes’ sales rising 89 per cent to $186m, while liquor, which accounted for 16 per cent of total sales, reached $168m. Gold sales increased 181 per cent over an year-earlier period,  with sales equalling $106m. Cigarettes and tobacco reached $98m and accounted for 9 per cent of sales while electronics rose by 79 per cent reaching sales of $81m.

#Dubai Duty Free has recorded a 104% increase in sales for the first eight months of 2022, with turnover reaching US$1.06 billion. pic.twitter.com/fUup8IxBn7

— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) September 6, 2022

Sales within the fashion category spiked from $41m to $130m, which could be credited to Dubai Duty Free’s recent openings of fashion brands including Louis Vuitton, Dior and Cartier, the retailer said. Online sales, however, reached $29m and accounted for 3 per cent of total sales in the first eight months.

Colm McLoughlin, executive vice chairman and CEO of Dubai Duty Free, said: “We have had a fantastic year so far and I am pleased that we have recovered over 80 per cent of our business from January to August, whereas the passenger recovery is about 67 per cent of 2019 levels. We have now recalled almost 2,000 of our laid off staff and our current staffing levels are getting closer to the pre-Covid figures.

“We are heading into a busy sales period for the last quarter and with the upcoming FIFA World Cup starting in November, this will further boost traffic to Al Maktoum International Airport (AMIA) which will handle an additional 30 return flights to Doha during the World Cup period. The opening of the new Fashion outlets has resulted in a big increase in the category and we are also continuing with our ongoing retail developments at Dubai International Airport (DXB). All in all, we are confident that we will reach our target at the end of December, which also marks our 39th anniversary.”

Passenger numbers also grew with DXB welcoming 27,884,888 million passengers in the first half of the year, just 1.2 million shy of the airport’s total annual traffic last year.

Read: Dubai’s DXB records 27.9 million passengers in first six months of the year

Departures sales in DXB and AMIA accounted for 88 per cent of total sales and rose 115 per cent over the same period last year, reaching $927m, while Terminal 2 Departure sales went up by 59 per cent.

Dubai Duty Free said that it will continue to look at its retail improvements over the next 18 months. Meanwhile, the number of employees has gone up to 4,407, which includes 58 new Emirati recruits.