It is a Happy New Year for Dubai Duty Free (DDF), as it started 2026 in record-breaking fashion, achieving its strongest performance for the month in history with sales of AED858.21M for January.
The 2026 January sales are up a remarkable 18.53 per cent over the same month last year, with gold recording a massive 45.74 per cent increase with sales of AED104M.
It is also the third-best sales month in the history of Dubai Duty Free, building on December 2025 (AED922.77M) and November 2025 (AED876.56M), which makes for three terrific months for the company.
Dubai Duty Free sales growth continued to outperform passenger traffic at Dubai International Airport. The final passenger numbers for January will be released by Dubai Airport later this month, but the out-performance over passenger growth is estimated at 13.5 per cent.
Ramesh Cidambi, Dubai Duty Free Managing Director, said: “We are extremely pleased to begin 2026 with our strongest January performance ever, following a record-breaking 2025. What is particularly encouraging is that sales growth has significantly outperformed passenger growth, demonstrating higher spend per passenger, strong demand across key categories and growth in all major geographical regions.”
