Finnair Ends In-Flight Duty Free Sales

Finnair is the next airline that has decided to discontinue in-flight duty-free sales that used to bring significant revenue.

The airline previously ended these sales on short-haul flights, and now they are also entirely axed on long-haul ones.

You can access Finnair here.

Finnair’s Announcement:

We are discontinuing both in-flight and pre-order retail sales of cosmetics, accessories, gifts and other retail products this spring. Our customers can continue pre-ordering meals and buying snacks and beverages on board. Finnair Plus members can also continue to buy Finnair Plus awards and products as well as home delivery products from Finnair Shop as before.

In-flight sales will end on all our flights on 28 February 2023, but pre-orders are delivered for flights until 18 April 2023.

“Onboard and pre-order shopping has become a less important service among our customers”, says Valtteri Helve, Head of Product Offering at Finnair. Already in spring 2020, we announced that we discontinue in-flight sales on our flights within EU as part of our goal to reduce the overall weight of the aircraft, and now it is time to take the next step. Food and beverage sales on flights will continue, of course, and we will continue to develop our service.”

During the final discount campaign, which launches 1 February 2023, customers can buy products onboard or pre-order items with a significant -40% discount. In-flight shopping is available on our long-haul flights, and flights to the Canary Islands, Dubai, Egypt, Iceland, Israel, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom. Customers can pre-order products for all flights with a duration of over 2 hours. Travel retail is not available on our Doha route.

“Together with our partners, we have been able to offer a wide range of products, and many Finnish brands have also been well represented on our flights”, says Tiina Tissari, Vice President Customer Experience and Products at Finnair.

Conclusion

I was just on an ANA flight within Asia, where they announced an hour before landing that the in-flight sales would cease in about 10 minutes.

These duty-free sales are still a thing with Asian clientele, but many airlines have decided they no longer want to be in this segment.

I have a few fond memories of in-flight sales back in the 1990s, but I cannot recall when was the last time I bought anything.

But why do we need to continue walking through a “shopping mall” at airports to reach the departure area? Unless you know the shortcut, you often need to pass through the endless alcohol and perfume offers with often highly inflated prices.