Manchester Airports Group (MAG) which owns and operates Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports registered a retail revenue rise of 9% to £198.1m ($249m) across 200+ shops, bars and restaurants, however duty free spend was down at Manchester Airport.

Retail concessions includes duty free income, food and beverage income and airport lounge income.

Although duty free sales – particularly at Manchester – were underwhelming, commercial revenue was driven by lounge income, pre-book parking and food & beverage units.

Across its airports, MAG has over 400,000sq ft of retail space operated by over 50 concessionaires. Retail represents 22.3% of the airport group’s total sales.

Group passenger numbers rose by 4.9% to 61.8m across its three UK airports, however, MAG says that ‘continuing Brexit-related uncertainty is creating a more challenging outlook for the Group in terms of economic growth and passenger demand’.

DROP IN DUTY FREE SPEND

At the company’s biggest airport, Manchester, traffic grew 2.5% to 28.6m. Commercial revenues were driven by car parking revenues, in particular through pre-book parking. However, retail revenues remained flat with increases in food and beverage being offset by a drop in duty free spend.

Retail growth of 11% registered at Stansted Airport was also driven by food & beverage, newsagency and financial services.

Retail revenue remained flat at East Midlands Airport, with a positive contribution from the lounges business. This year also saw the launch of Proof 65, the first own-brand food & beverage concept, operated by the Group.

MAG’s group revenue grew overall by 8.7% to £889.4m.