London Heathrow Airport – one of the world’s top five locations for duty free and travel retail sales – saw retail revenue grow by a strong +7.7%, well above the +1% revenue rise across the whole business. Passenger numbers in the period grew marginally by +0.6% to 35.7m.

Retail hit £280m/$372m in H1, while aeronautical revenue was broadly flat (-0.1%) at £802m/$1,065m, which produced an overall company increase of +1% to £1,320m/$1,753m (see graphic and click to enlarge).

Retail revenue per pax also went up to £7.84 (+7.1%) as Heathrow gained from commercial revenue initiatives and also improved international traffic from higher-spending nationalities.

Long-haul traffic increased +1.4%, mainly from the Middle East and Asia Pacific. Heathrow Airport says: “Passengers benefited from larger aircraft on Middle East routes and new airlines serving Asia including Vietnam Airways.”

RETAIL BREAKDOWN

Within the retail segment, revenue from duty- and tax-free stores [essentially World Duty Free] reached £62m, up by +3.3%, but the biggest growth came from airside specialist shops which were up by +8.5% to £51m (see table below).

Heathrow Airport comments: “Retail shops performed well in the first half of 2016 following the major redevelopment of stores in Terminal 5 including new brands which have strengthened (the) shopping experience.

“Performance in duty and tax-free stores has continued to improve following extensive refurbishment in Terminal 5. Car parking has performed well in the first half, with continued take-up of Heathrow’s car parking range and successful yield management.”

Heathrow’s overall financial figures can be seen in the bottom table.