# How airport pricing works

Most travellers picture one duty free shop, run by the airport, selling at one price. Almost none of that is true. The shop is usually run by a retailer that won a concession, the price is set by that retailer inside the terms of the concession, and the taxes that come off the ticket depend on where you are standing and where you are going. Understanding the arrangement explains most of the odd prices you will see.

## The concession, not the airport

Airports rent their retail space. A retailer bids for the right to run the shops in a terminal, pays the airport a share of what it takes, and prices to cover that share. Two terminals at the same airport can be run by two different operators, and the same bottle can carry two prices a short walk apart. A retailer that runs shops at a dozen airports usually holds one range and one price list per country, not one per airport, which is why prices cluster by operator rather than by city.

## What duty actually comes off

Duty free means the excise duty and, usually, the local sales tax are not charged on goods sold to a departing traveller. That is a real reduction, and on spirits in a country with heavy excise it is a large one. It is not the whole price. The importer's margin, the concession fee, the shipping and the retailer's own margin are all still there, and in a country with light excise there was little duty to remove in the first place. This is why the same brand can be a strong buy leaving one country and an indifferent one leaving another.

## Arrivals, departures and the border

Some countries run arrivals shops, where you buy after landing rather than before leaving. Others do not. The allowance that applies is the arrival country's, in both cases, so an arrivals shop simply moves the purchase to the end of the journey and saves you carrying it. Where a border is internal, as within a customs union, duty may not come off at all and the shop sells at ordinary retail with a travel range on the shelf.

## Why the shelf moves

Airport ranges turn over on a seasonal cycle, promotions run in bursts, and exchange rates shift under a price list that is only revised periodically. A price seen in March is a guide to March. Every price on this site carries the date it was observed for exactly that reason, and the comparison is built from observations, never from a single figure treated as the standing price.

## What to do with all this

Three practical consequences. Compare across the airports on your route rather than accepting the first shelf, because operator and country both move the number: [compare your airports](/savings). Look at the category rather than the brand first, since duty falls unevenly and some shelves are simply better value than others: [see what is on the alcohol shelves](/alcohol) and [the beauty hall](/beauty). And check the date beside any price you are relying on, because the shelf has almost certainly moved since somebody last looked at it.