‘Fourth-best month ever’ – Dubai Duty Free smashes April records with US$195 million in sales

UAE. Dubai Duty Free posted an all-time April sales high of AED713 million (US$195.4 million), an +18% increase year-on-year.

Remarkably, the result ranks April 2025 as the fourth-best month on record for the airport retailer since operations began in December 1983.

In April, the top five product categories in order were perfumes, liquor, tobacco, gold and confectionery.

Perfume sales (i.e. excluding cosmetics) reached AED128.7 million (US$35.3 million) contributing 18% of total revenue and showing a notable increase of +16% year-on-year.

Liquor followed with AED92.5 million (US$25.3 million) in revenues, up +13%, while tobacco saw a +25% surge year-on-year with sales of AED73.9 million (US$20.3 million).

Gold sales rose +35% to AED 71.6 million (US$19.6 million), contributing 10% of total revenue.

Confectionery, spurred by the Dubai Chocolate phenomenon, continued to demonstrate strong growth, achieving AED69.5 million (US$19.1 million) in sales, an extraordinary +84% increase year-on-year, accounting for 10% of total revenue.

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Dubai Duty Free was particularly encouraged by the performance of the fashion boutiques in Terminal 3’s Concourses A and B. Their combined sales were up +12% year-on-year, a commendable turnaround given that these high-profile stores have been lagging in sales since Q1 2024.

The Pre-loved luxury segment, which is available in the airport retailer’s Reklaim outlets, has delivered impressive results of AED9 million (US$2.45 million) since it was introduced in December 2024. Of that, AED3.5 million (US$ 0.97 million) was generated in April alone.

As mentioned, the viral Dubai Chocolate continued its remarkable success story with sales hitting AED28.6 million (US$7.8 million) in April, representing an extraordinary AED1 million (US$274,000) in sales per day.

Other notable performers included ticket sales for the milestone Dubai Duty Free Millennium Millionaire Series 500, which was sold out within a record seven days.

That result underscored continuing strong demand for a long-running popular promotion synonymous with Dubai Duty Free and adding to the total Millennium Millionaire sales for April of AED21 million (US$5.3 million).

“This robust performance can be seen across all categories both in-store and online, with online sales increasing by +3% in April,” said Dubai Duty Free Managing Director Ramesh Cidambi.

“We are also seeing an increase in the average passenger spend and that too is very encouraging.”

Sales in departures across the operation reached AED638.3 million (US$174.9 million) representing 90% of total monthly sales and an increase of +19% compared to the same period last year.

Arrivals sales reached AED51.2 million (US$14.04 million), representing 7% of total sales and an increase of +17% year-on-year.

In terms of top source markets for Dubai Duty Free, India remained number one with AED72.14 million (US$19.8 million) sales, followed by Russia with AED54.6 million (US$14.97 million), Saudi Arabia with AED51.2 million (US$14.0 million), China with AED39.3 million (US$10.8 million), and the UK in fifth place with sales of AED36.2 million (US$9.9 million).