Centrair's duty-free sales keep falling as China-route capacity stays cut

Duty-free sales at Chubu Centrair airport fell 10 per cent year on year in July, to ¥1,118m, even as the airport's total passenger count returned to growth for the first time in four months, according to the operator's own monthly traffic and commercial results.

Centrair carried 942,117 passengers in July, up 1 per cent from a year earlier. The gain came entirely from the domestic side, where traffic rose 4 per cent to 553,117; international passengers fell 2 per cent, to 389,000, a decline the airport has linked to reduced capacity on China routes.

The passenger mix explains why duty-free is taking a harder hit than traffic alone suggests. General merchandise shops, which sell mostly to domestic travellers, took in ¥783m in July, up 6 per cent. Food and drink outlets brought in ¥541m, down 6 per cent. Total on-airport commercial sales came to ¥2,443m, down 5 per cent. Duty-free — the category that depends most on high-spending international shoppers — absorbed the worst of it, falling 10 per cent against a 2 per cent decline in the international passengers it actually serves.

The category has declined in most months since last spring. Centrair's own monthly results put duty-free sales at ¥1,613m in April 2025; by this July they had fallen to ¥1,118m, a drop of roughly 31 per cent over sixteen months, with a small rebound each autumn as inbound demand from markets other than China picks up for the peak season. The same pressure showed up elsewhere this month: China-route aircraft movements at Narita fell 49 per cent year on year in July, according to that airport's own release, even as its total passenger count kept growing. For a duty-free floor built up around Chinese group tourism, the message at both airports is the same — the category needs a new customer to replace the one that has not fully returned.