Qatar's Hamad Airport Holds Steady In New Rankings As Duty-Free Offer Expands
A series of rankings were unveiled today and last week that are often reliable indicators of current and future duty-free retail performances at airports. One airport, Qatar's Hamad International, maintained its standing across all these lists.
Last week's 2025 Skytrax Awards saw the Qatar Airways hub, opened in 2014, lose its crown as the world's top airport to Singapore Changi; the latter returning to the number one spot, as voted by air travelers around the world. Hamad International dropped to second place as the Singapore hub recovered traffic volumes after Covid, but it retained pole position as best airport in the Middle East for the 11th consecutive year.
The biggest movers in the global Top 10, released at Passenger Terminal Expo in Madrid, were Dubai International, which dropped out, slipping from 7th last year to 11th in 2025, while Hong Kong International and Rome's Fiumicino airport climbed to 6th and 8th respectively, from 11th and 12th.
Today, global airport association, Airports Council International (ACI), released its definitive preview list of 2024's busiest international airports for traffic. While Doha is ranked 10th with 52.7 million passengers, it is now 36% ahead of pre-pandemic 2019, indicating the progress the airport has made in recent years in building capacity and hub connections. This is in sharp contrast to several European hubs, notably Germany's Frankfurt, which is still 11% down on 2019, but remains on an infrastructure expansion path.
Only Turkey's Istanbul Airport—where travel retail Gebr. Heinemann and its local partners have the core retail business—has shown better results since 2019, with 59% growth. However, this reflects, in part, a change in location from Istanbul's previous pre-pandemic hub of Atatürk to a much larger, new gateway. Heinemann has gained handsomely from the growth, which has also been fueled by Turkish Airlines' unswerving focus on network expansion.
A third ranking, also from Skytrax, saw Hamad International see off some stiff competition from the likes of London Heathrow and Singapore Changi, to win the award for the world's best airport shopping for the third year running. Retail at the airport, with a slew of luxury brands present, is operated by Qatar Airways subsidiary Qatar Duty Free (QDF) which saw high sales growth of 18% last year.
The three rankings combined put QDF in a good position for the rest of 2025, on the back of continuing traffic growth. Last year, the retailer launched more than 18 new retail outlets and created high-impact campaigns with luxury brands like Chanel and YSL. This year, the official opening of further terminal extensions in the form of concourses D and E at the end of March has added almost 30,000 square feet (2,700 square meters) of new retail space in the terminal, boosting the airport's capacity to more than 65 million.
Hamad Airport's chief operating officer, Hamad Ali Al Khater, said: 'Our focus is to deliver operational excellence that supports both current demands and future growth. Concourses D and E mark a significant milestone in expanding our capacity. This combined development streamlines passenger flow, optimizes resource management, and strengthens airline connectivity.'
The concourses complete the airport's development plan (started in 2018), adding 17 new aircraft contact gates to push the total to 62. They also introduced about 10 new retail and dining outlets, including a souk-style market, Joe & The Juice, Accessories Lab, plus luxury Fendi and Giorgio Armani stores. QDF declined to provide details of all the stores, but the larger footprint should help the retailer to ramp up growth this year.
A 25th anniversary campaign is also coming soon, plus a total of 25 retail and food and beverage outlets are expected by the year-end to mark the occasion. QDF's data-sharing platform, 36Q, launched in late 2024, will be instrumental to future sales gains. In a statement, the company said: '36Q empowers QDF and its partners to deliver hyper-personalized experiences—whether it is luxury splurges or daily essentials.'
Personalization is high on the priority list. Hamad International now has more than 200 retail and dining outlets, but Qatar Duty Free continues to hunt for retail experiences that travelers will see as unique, exclusive, and that cannot be found anywhere else.
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