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Dubai Duty Free’s April sales hit Dh713 million – fourth best month ever
Last month was the fourth best month on record for the airport retailer since operations began
- PUBLISHED: Thu 1 May 2025, 6:13 PM
Dubai Duty Free has announced that sales in April reached a remarkable Dh713 million ($195.4 million), marking a new record for the month of April. This represents an 18 per cent increase over April 2024 and positions April as the fourth best month on record for the airport retailer since operations began.
In April, the top five product categories sold were perfumes, beverages, tobacco, gold and confectionery. Perfume sales reached Dh128.72 million, contributing 18 per cent of total revenue and showing an increase of 16 per cent over the same month last year. Beverages followed closely with sales of Dh92.50 million an increase of 13 per cent, while tobacco saw a 25 per cent increase year-on-year with sales of Dh73.95 million. Gold sales amounted to Dh71.57 million, contributing 10 per cent of total revenue and an increase of 35 per cent. Confectionery continued to demonstrate strong growth, achieving Dh69.54 million (US$19.05 million), marking an 84 per cent increase from the same month last year and accounting for 10 per cent of total revenue.
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The fashion boutiques in Terminal 3’s Concourse A and B combined outperformed their sales from last April, recording a 12 per cent increase.
The preloved luxury segment, which is available in the airport retailer’s Reklaim outlets, delivered impressive results of Dh9 million since it was introduced in December 2024 of which Dh3.52 million was generated in April alone. Meanwhile, the viral Dubai chocolate continued its remarkable success story with sales hitting Dh28.60 million in April, which is an average of Dh1 million sales per day.
Ramesh Cidambi, Managing Director of Dubai Duty Free said, “November and December 2024 were record months, joined by January 2025, so it is great to see that April sales are in the top four monthly sales rankings now. April was a busy month passenger-wise with Eid holidays, Easter and the Arabian Travel Market pushing up passenger numbers. However, as far as we know, sales outstripped passenger numbers, which is a very positive indicator for us”.
Other notable performers include ticket sales for the milestone Dubai Duty Free Millennium Millionaire Series 500, which was sold out within a record seven days, underscoring strong demand for this popular promotion and adding to the total Millennium Millionaire sales for April of Dh21 million.
“This robust performance can be seen across all categories both in-store and online, with online sales increasing by 3 per cent in April. We are also seeing an increase in the average passenger spend and that is also very encouraging,” said Cidambi.
Sales in Departures across the operation reached Dh638.27 million, representing 90 per cent of total monthly sales and an increase of 19 per cent compared to the same period last year, while Arrivals sales reached Dh51.22 million, representing 7 per cent of total sales and an increase of 17 per cent over April last year.
In terms of top source markets for Dubai Duty Free, India is number one with Dh72.14 million sales, followed by Russia with Dh54.62 million, Saudi Arabia with Dh51.23 million, China with Dh39.25 million, and the UK in fifth place with sales of Dh36.19 million.