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Many companies reliant on EU travel-retail are only just recovering from the abolition of duty-free sales within the region in 1999. Yet this month 10 new states join the Union [...]

'What have the Romans ever done for us?' asks a Judean separatist in Monty Python's comedy The Life of Brian. You could forgive Europe's travel retailers for adopting a similar [...]

If India's roadmap for aviation development is to be trusted, anyone taking the journey should prepare for a long and bumpy ride. The Naresh Chandra committee report, completed last year, [...]

When the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) responded to the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001, no-one could have predicted the impact its new restrictions would have on the US aviation [...]

Duty-free operators around the world breathed a collective sigh of relief last May, when the World Health Organisation (WHO) published the final version of its Framework Convention on Tobacco Control [...]

Not long ago, access to China's lucrative market was a fantasy for foreign tobacco suppliers. But following the country's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001, the state monopoly [...]

Disadvantaged business enterprise regulations offer US airports a way to level the playing field for groups that may have suffered from discrimination in the past. They are well meaning, if [...]

Since August 2006, life has been good if you're in plastic bag manufacturing or explosive detection development. It hasn't been so good if you've been in the business of selling [...]

The US cigar market has always been fairly insular compared with the broad geographical conquest of Cuban premium cigars and small European cigars. But over the past year or so [...]

Unlike the threat that the global tobacco industry has fought so hard since mid-2001, the South African industry's troubles seem to have passed in the blink of an eye. Only [...]

Since 1999 cross-Channel ferry operators have relied on the price differential between French and UK domestic tobacco to offer savings to their British passengers. But the French government's decision to [...]

Businesses trying to get along in the travel-retail industry are no strangers to tight regulation. And for the most part a rapidly growing paper mountain is seen as a necessary [...]

For a generation raised on Hollywood tales of cowboys and Indians, the old stories of the Wild West must seem a long time ago. But to residents of New York [...]

There is only one Christmas sale worth talking about this year. But after the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) issued a thinly-veiled statement implying that it will be watching the World [...]

The European Travel Retail Council (ETRC) has again called for beauty suppliers to rethink their approach to pack sizes in travel-retail to accommodate restrictions on liquids, aerosols and gels (LAGs). [...]

After months of bitter moaning about the effect the European Union's restrictions on liquids, aerosols and gels (LAGs) would have on their business, travel retailers around the world have been [...]

INTERNATIONAL. The European Travel Retail Council (ETRC) has renewed its plea for retailers and suppliers to urge their governments to seek 'approved country' status with the European Commission on liquids, [...]

High concession fees paid by inflight concessionaires to airlines mean that branded electronics goods do not have the presence they deserve in inflight brochures, a leading inflight concessionaire has told [...]

Inflight retail is in need of an image makeover. Alpha Airports Group CEO Peter Williams describes the operation as one of logistics rather than retail, and argues that magazines, books [...]

The status quo Airports in the European Union, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland have been operating under a new security regime since November 6. The new restrictions mean that passengers can [...]

Tax Free World Association (TFWA) has reassured tobacco exhibitors at the TFWA World Exhibition that next year's show will pass without the disruption faced at last month's event. The 14 [...]

French minister for foreign trade Christine Lagarde was the toast of Cannes following her speech at the opening conference of last month's TFWA World Exhibition. Unlike many of the big-name [...]

INTERNATIONAL. Travel retailers across the world are adapting to a new trading environment in the wake of airport security restrictions imposed on November 6. The new measures restrict the ability [...]

For a trade that is in such close communication with local Customs authorities, it is strange how often directives issued by Customs departments or closely related government ministries have threatened [...]

Positive announcements from the European Union and the US Transportation Security Administration have provided sonic welcome relief for trawl retailers following two months of confusion over security restrictions. On both [...]

While most of the scaremongering in the past two months has focused on the new security restrictions following the foiled UK terror plot of August 10, it is heartening to [...]

The new restrictions on sales of liquids to air passengers have led to the global spread of an airport retail system once confined to the US: gate delivery. The system [...]

Industry campaigners are awaiting clarification on a bill that could threaten self-service sales of tobacco products throughout Sri Lanka. The National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol bill, due to be [...]

The European Travel Retail Council (ETRC) has raised concerns about proposed changes to allowances for travellers entering the EU from a third country, which would remove the separate inbound fragrances [...]

If the Swiss government decides to introduce arrivals duty-free legislation next month, several parties will be delighted. Airport authorities in Zurich, Geneva and Basel would expect to benefit from higher [...]

US. The new law requiring travellers across US borders to carry passports could be postponed until July 2009, allowing retailers more time to educate their customers. The US Senate has [...]

Two cases of leakage from duty-free to domestic markets this month suggest that the industry must take stronger action to regulate itself if it is to avoid greater external pressure [...]

MALAYSIA/SINGAPORE. The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and Malaysia Airports are to compete aggressively for market share in Asia's growing budget travel market, opening terminals dedicated to low-cost carriers [...]

While most retailers have welcomed the European Union's proposed changes to travellers' allowances, the news for the tobacco category is mitigated. Accompanying the increased value of non-excise goods that travellers [...]

The Turkish duty-free industry has been caught off guard by new tobacco labelling regulations introduced late last year, DFNI has learned. The new rules require labels similar to those in [...]

Inspired by the introduction of arrivals duty-free in Norway, another of Europe's few remaining pure duty-free markets is considering the establishment of the potentially lucrative sales channel. Yet the chances [...]

EU. The European Travel Retail Council (ETRC) has secured an exemption for duty-free retailers from a proposal to set mandatory bottle sizes for liquor and wines sold in the European [...]

JAMAICA. Legislation to allow arrivals duty-free shopping could be passed as early as March, Jamaica's prime minister PJ Patterson told guests at the opening of Sangster International airport's new concourse [...]

The Spanish government's decision to ban the country's airlines from selling tobacco inflight, revealed in DFNI December 1, is an unwelcome precedent. It is one of the first instances of [...]

Representatives from regional travel-retail associations urged delegates at a tobacco workshop at TFWA World Exhibition to take local action to ensure that governments do not make further restrictions on duty-free [...]

For those of us who thought that the threat to duty-flee tobacco sales started and ended with the World Health Organization's (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), 2005 has [...]

SWITZERLAND. Swiss airport authorities and travel retailers hope to persuade the government to introduce legislation allowing arrivals duty-free shopping, following the lead set by Norway earlier this summer. The Nuance [...]

European Travel Retail Council secretary general Keith Spinks risked causing offence last month when he told DFNI that national and trade media should only hear of threats to travel-retail once [...]

The Vietnamese government is considering a ban on duty-free tobacco sales at airports and border stores, DFNI has learned. Industry campaigners are working with local operator Imex Pan-Pacific to assess [...]

EUROPE. The European Travel Retail Council (ETRC) is urging the European Commission to reconsider a recent proposal restricting the number of liquor and wine bottle sizes. If implemented in their [...]

Spanish retailer Aldeasa could lose almost one-third of its sales within Spain if legislation being considered by the country's government is put into effect. Among the measures proposed in the [...]

UK. The Office of Fair Trading, a government regulatory body, has rejected appeals from Mastercard to reverse its decision that the credit card company's interbank fees violate UK competition laws, [...]

Travel-retail lobbyists have warned that a proposal to ban duty-free tobacco sales in the country could be 'very serious'. The health ministry proposal, reported in The Malaysia Star earlier this [...]

The tobacco industry has enjoyed a peaceful and relatively threat-free summer, but the calm was broken by the announcement by Australia's Liberal party on September 8 of its pre-election budget [...]

ISRAEL. Duty-free operators have reacted with alarm to a bill tabled earlier this month advocating a ban on duty-tree tobacco sales. The bill proposes redrafting the country's laws governing restrictions [...]