78% surge in DDF annual sales reflects robust recovery of Dubai Airports traffic

78% surge in DDF annual sales reflects robust recovery of Dubai Airports traffic

After two challenging years, Dubai Duty Free ended 2022 with a bang as it ushered in the new year by recording a 78 per cent jump in annual sales of Dh6.339 billion for the previous year, reflecting the remarkable recovery in airport traffic.

The airport retailer, which will be completing four decades of exceptional growth this year, said its business recorded over 17.3 million sales transactions throughout the year, or an average of 46,912 sales transactions per day, while 47.302 million units of merchandise were sold.

The sales boom at DDF underscores the robust recovery of the passenger traffic at Dubai International, which has been retaining its status as the world’s busiest airport by international traffic for several years.

Dubai Airports received 18.455 million visitors during the July-September quarter, the biggest number since 17.8 million in the first quarter of 2020. The estimated total traffic for 2022 is 64.3 million after passenger traffic nearly tripled in the third quarter from the same period last year.

For 2023, the annual projection is 77.8 million passengers, and 87.4 million for 2024, which would beat the pre-pandemic level of 86.4 million seen in 2019.

“We are thrilled to announce such a positive year as travel returns, during which