Kannur International Airport, located in Kerala, started its operations just a year ago in December 2018. Being an international airport, it requires duty-free shops to be deployed and the contract is bagged by none other than GMR Airports Limited. Duty-Free shops help the travellers avoid custom charges and they can purchase the products right at the airport itself without any worry. A duty-free tag will be added to the products which the passengers purchase and these products will not be entitled to any customs charges at the airport. According to a survey, Kannur International Airport saw more than 0.54 million international travellers during the April-November period of 2019.
GMR Bags the Contract of Launching Duty-Free Shops at KIAL
Kannur International Airport Ltd or KIAL became operational in December 2018. Since then, it has become one of the popular airports in the country with more than a million passengers travelling between April-November last year. GMR Airports Ltd has bagged the contract of deploying duty-free shops at KIAL. Notably, this is the first time GMR is handling a duty-free concession outside its airport portfolio. Current airports under GMR include Delhi and Hyderabad, and both of them are international airports.
A release from GMR group said that the airport arm would finance, develop, operate and manage duty-free shops (DFS) at the Kannur airport. GMR did not provide any deadline for launching first DFS at the airport. With the contract already in hand, we may see it coming in the next two-three months itself.
"We are very happy to be partnering with KIAL to develop, operate and manage the duty-free outlets at Kannur international airport. We are excited about the potential of this airport," said SGK Kishore, Executive Director – South, GMR Airports.
Kannur Airport Saw 0.54 Million International Travellers Between April-November
In other news, a report said that Kannur International Airport is very much active when it comes to international travellers. Around 0.54 million international travellers were found during April-November 2019 period, and the airport had 1.14 million passengers overall. As you can see, the domestic and international travellers count is very much equal.
Kannur airport largely sees travellers to the Middle East region and these passengers will find duty-free shops very useful.