Duty free turnover at Istanbul Airport (IST) ballooned 95% year-on-year for the period January to May 2022 thanks to an ‘expanded passenger profile’, Kadri Samsunlu, CEO of operator İGA has confirmed to TRBusiness.

This was despite an 18% fall in spend per passenger, with F&B also slower to recover.

Speaking to this publication for the Top 10 Airports report, available to read in the June/July e-zine, the chief executive of İGA revealed year-on-year duty free revenue growth of +77% in 2021, fuelled by increased spend per passenger.

The luxury category in particular registered a notable increase in total turnover.

Istanbul Airport was named Europe’s busiest in 2021 for the second consecutive year and ranked second among ACI World’s busiest international airports, serving more than 26.4 million international passengers.

While international transfer passengers dominated traffic movement, 2021 yielded strong domestic passenger numbers driven by a devalued Turkish lira that curtailed international travel plans, visa issues and a cap on domestic air fares.

“Compared to the pre-pandemic period, however, the basket size of domestic passengers has decreased,” commented Samsunlu.

Thousands of sqm in additional retail space

For the airport’s duty free operators, which serve a combined 53,000sq m of retail space, 2021 exceeded expectations.

In its Annual & Corporate Responsibility Report 2021, Gebr. Heinemann – which has a 60.8% stake in Unifree Duty Free – reported ‘above average turnover’ at Istanbul Airport.

“Even though only 50% of our retail spaces were open and the volume of passengers was only roughly half of that in 2019, our turnover for 2021 stood at around 70% of pre-crisis levels,” said Aydin Celebi, the group’s Area Sales Manager Near East  & Turkey. “This is despite the fact that wealthy customers from Asia have stayed away for the past two years and the number of business travellers is down significantly.

“However, the figures show when travellers fly via Istanbul, they buy considerably more than before the pandemic.|

For ATÜ Duty Free, the joint venture between TAV Airports Holding and Unifree Duty Free/Gebr. Heinemann, H2 2021 sales exceeded US$45 million, which outperformed its original forecast by 32%.

“With almost 90% recovery on 2019 performance in terms of pax figures, the airport authority decided to reopen the east wing in late April 2022, and we are now fully operational with all terminal retail spaces in the terminal achieving +30% on our 2022 sales forecast,” said Ersan Arcan, CEO, ATÜ Duty Free.

This year, İGA is forecasting passenger traffic of close to 60 million passengers.

Should this materialise, it would correspond to approximately 88% of Istanbul Airport’s 68 million passengers handled in 2019.

A full recovery of passenger traffic is expected in full-year 2023m, according to a bullish Samsunlu.

“Flight movements will definitely surpass 2019 levels and we will host a forecast 76 million passengers in 2023 and we expect to be the first mega hub in Europe to complete the recovery,” he projected confidently.

Elsewhere, Heinemann, Unifree Duty Free and ATÜ Duty Free are continuing to innovate and adapt with an arrivals duty free shop set to be converted into a walk-through store.

More luxury brands are also due to be added to the product offering, with an additional 4,500sq m of retail space pegged for the Luxury Square and Luxury Hill locations, including a Cartier unit.

Extract from an original article by Claire Malcolm published in the Top 10 Airports report in the TRBusiness June/July e-zine. 

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