Abu Dhabi Duty Free posts record Dh487.9 million first-half sales

Abu Dhabi Duty Free sales gain 11.5 per cent in the first half amid an increase in passenger arrivals ahead of new airport terminal.

The number of Abu Dhabi Duty Free transactions in the first six months rose 12.8 per cent to just over 2 million. Jaime Puebla / The National

Abu Dhabi Duty Free has posted record sales for the first six months of this year of almost Dh500,000.

The growth comes as new duty-free outlets selling goods including alcohol, cigarettes, perfumes, fashion and souvenirs opened, and as passenger traffic through Abu Dhabi International Airport likewise grew at a double-digit rate.

First-half sales at Abu Dhabi Duty Free advanced 11.5 per cent to Dh487.9 million this year from Dh437.6m last year, Abu Dhabi Airports, which owns Duty Free, said yesterday.

The number of Duty Free transactions in the period rose 12.8 per cent to just over 2 million, the parent company added.

During this year’s first six months, Abu Dhabi Duty Free opened two shops in Terminal 3, refurbished the souvenir outlets in Terminals 1 and 3 and started a perfume shop in Terminal 1.

“The continuing improvements and additions of new retail outlets at Abu Dhabi International Airport are clearly making their mark on the company’s commercial revenues,” said Abu Dhabi Airports’ chief commercial officer Mohammed Al Bulooki.

“Passengers here benefit from a wide array of shopping, food and beverages, and entertainment services that are available. It is very important that they are given the widest possible choice of activity when they are guests in the airport. And with passenger numbers increasing month by month, that requirement becomes more urgent.”

The gains in duty free sales also come amid efforts by the emirate to attract more tourists and transit passengers ahead of the completion of the Midfield Terminal building, which is expected, once open in the summer of 2017, to more than double capacity at the airport.

Passenger arrivals at the airport reached 1.7 million in July, the latest data from Abu Dhabi Airports showed. That figure represented a 21.7 per cent advance in traffic over the same month last year, the airport said.

Meanwhile, the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority said this week that hotel guest arrivals in the emirate were 26 per cent higher in July, with guest nights rising 20 per cent year on year and revenues increasing 14 per cent.

Abu Dhabi Airports said in yesterday’s statement that it had formally begun the tender process for retail and food and beverage concessions at the Midfield Terminal building, which it said is making rapid progress and will have an annual capacity of 30 million when it opens.

Follow The National's Business section on Twitter