Airport prices go from duty-free to sky-high

BACK IN THE good old days, when we all seemed to have a lot more money than sense, a stall opened at Dublin airport to sell bottled waters from around the world. One in particular epitomised the spending madness that gripped the nation for a decade: a Swarovski-crystal-encrusted bottle of Bling H20 had a price tag of more than €100.

When airports start selling water at such ridiculous prices, it’s crystal clear that they’ve lost the run of themselves and moved beyond the realm of the low-cost duty-free zones that made them such pleasant places to shop in times gone by.

Today, with austerity being the new bling, the water stand is long gone and Dublin airport is trying to reposition itself as a better-value place to shop. Its Loop stores are heavily promoting themselves as the ultimate value-for-money shops and recently started to allow people to buy their shopping in the departure halls and collect it when they got home.

But are there genuine savings to be made? The airport says its prices “are never knowingly higher than downtown”, and it has even attached a price promise to its shopping. It says it will refund customers double the difference on any item purchased in the Loop if they find it selling for less in a comparable store or outlet in the city centre.

We looked at prices “downtown” and within a minute found a litre bottle of Jameson whiskey, which costs €34.80 (duty paid) in the Loop, selling for €34.59 in Tesco. So readers in Dublin airport today can get themselves 42 cent back on their bottle of whiskey, although that probably won’t even cover the postage costs associated with the refund application.

According to a spokeswoman for Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), it is very difficult to compete with supermarkets when it comes to alcohol, particularly when they are in the middle of a price war, but she says that each month a company checks prices for DAA, which then tries to match or better them.

The spokeswoman also told Go that cigarettes and alcohol are no longer big sellers at the airport – and haven’t been since the cash cow that was intra-EU duty-free was killed in 1999, taking to its grave 70 per cent of DAA’s airport revenue.

Now, she says, the most popular items are cosmetics and fragrances – Clarins Hand & Nail Cream, YSL Touche Éclat and Elizabeth Arden Flawless Finish are its three best sellers. She claims that most of the Loop’s cosmetics sell for between 25 and 40 per cent less than downtown.

While DAA may be keen to compare prices with regular Irish “downtown” retailers, it is left in the ha’penny place when compared with airports internationally. A reader who recently spent a weekend visiting friends in London contacted us to express alarm at the high prices at home.

On his outward journey he bought a litre bottle of Baileys at Dublin airport for €24.40. Later that afternoon he found a litre bottle in a Waitrose supermarket – not known as the UK’s cheapest chain – for £13.99 (€15.50). He was annoyed still further when he bought more Baileys at Heathrow for £11 (€12.15) – or less than half the DAA price.

Meanwhile, a bottle of Jameson that costs €18.50 duty-free in Dublin costs £14 (€15.69) at Gatwick Airport – and the offer is open to all travellers, whether they are travelling within or outside the EU.

Farther afield, the price discrepancies between products – even those commonly associated with Ireland – are even greater. In Mexico City a bottle of Jameson costs $19 (€14.06) and a litre of Baileys $18 (€13.32). The duty-free prices in Dublin are €18.50 and €15.90.

But back to the water – and not the bling kind. A 500ml bottle costs less than €1 in most large supermarkets in the Republic, but it can cost up to €1.70 in airport shops on the other side of the security area, which you can no longer bring your own bottle through. Such a high mark-up scandalises many people, and while DAA won’t defend these prices it does caution consumers to shop around, as if they were in any town centre.

There are ways to save. Boots is selling two 750ml bottles for €2.50, or €1.66 a litre, compared with €3.40 a litre in adjacent shops. Boots also has good-value meal deals, with a sandwich, snack and bottle of water selling for €3.99, a whole lot less than anywhere else at the airport – or indeed in the sky, on many of the flights out of Ireland.