SAUDI ARABIA. Riyadh Airports Company (RAC) has reported a lift in duty free sales of close to +12% at King Khalid International Airport (KKIA) for the months covering September-November against the same 2019 period.
The encouraging results have been achieved by duty free operator Lagardère Travel Retail in stores across terminals 1 and 2 of the airport.
RAC described the achievement as a “clear indication of passenger recovery”, as it presses on with its ambitious growth targets for the Riyadh airport, a subject recently covered in-depth by The Moodie Davitt Report.
RAC also reported the recent opening of KKIA’s first McDonald’s outlet in the landside concourse of Terminal 1, where early sales have been very encouraging, it noted.
The airport operator added that it is confident for growth prospects in 2022 and beyond with good signs of sales recovery in existing commercial outlets at KKIA and the upcoming opening of Terminals 3 and 4.
RAC also pointed to a plethora of international events scheduled to happen in Riyadh next year, which will generate notable additional commercial air traffic to KKIA. That, it said, will contribute towards Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, which has the objective of delivering 100 million tourists to the country annually by that year, from 42 million mostly religious pilgrims in 2019.
Riyadh Airports Company Acting VP, Commercial Group Abdulaziz Al-Asaker said: “We are very pleased to see the strong recovery across our duty free operations over the last few months.
“Whilst some of the sales increase comes from new categories, there is also solid spend per pax growth across the business along with robust passenger recovery.”
He added: “It is very satisfying to see the results of strong collaboration shining through and we will continue to work with our partners to build on this recovery base.”
