The airport luxury boutique became a staple of the pre-pandemic travel boom. Now it may be heading for the departure gate.
In 2021, air passenger numbers globally totaled 4.6 billion, only half the 2019 level, according to data from the Airports Council International. Airlines aren’t the only ones feeling the pain. Switzerland-based
one of the world’s biggest duty-free businesses, said in its latest quarterly results that sales are still down 44% compared with the same period of 2019. Based on numbers for the first nine months, London’s Heathrow Airport in 2021 was on track to make just one-quarter of the revenue from retail concessions it did two years earlier.
Before the pandemic, travel retail sales were growing around 8% a year, creating competition to rent space in airports. Luxury brands…
