UK. World Duty Free today revealed that some £750,000 worth of liquor and fragrance is being confiscated each week from passengers transiting through London Heathrow Airport.
Since 6 November travellers from elsewhere in the world transiting through EU, EEA or Swiss airports have had liquids, aerosols and gels (LAGs) of over 100ml confiscated at the transit security point.
Until now World Duty Free owner BAA has declined to reveal the level of confiscations publicly. But in an article in The Times today, the £750,000 figure was revealed.
Commenting on further changes as other countries such as Australia introduce their own restrictions, World Duty Free Managing Director Mark Riches noted: “Our responsibility is making sure passengers are given the correct information. These things do change, so before anyone who will be transferring flights buys anything they should ask.”
World Duty Free said it offers a full refund to any customer who has lost an item bought from one of its stores. Riches told the newspaper that the retailer was reimbursing about 80 customers a week. He noted that sales of alcohol and fragrance had recovered from a -20% fall when the new rules on liquids were introduced, and were now only slightly down year-on-year.
A European Travel Retail Council spokesman told the newspaper: “In a matter of months, millions of people will be going on their annual holiday. Most of those people will only travel once a year and don’t have an intimate knowledge of security systems around the world. We are going to see confiscation levels rise considerably.”
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