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| tax-free sales to end. Photo KLM |
The large European airline KLM has confirmed this week that from July 2019, it will halt the offering of tax-free items on all its European flights. The global carrier also advised that from the start of next year it will also stop this service on board its long-haul and intercontinental flights.
"Because the current way of selling on board is no longer in line with today's customer requirements, we have decided after extensive deliberation," says Miriam Kartman, KLM's Executive Vice President of Inflight Services. "In concrete terms, this means that passengers will no longer be able to purchase tax-free items on board our European flights from July 2019 and no longer on our intercontinental flights from January 2020."
For decades KLM, like many other carriers has been offering tax-free goods for sale on its aircraft and online. KLM thus provided a customer need, however as the world moves to a more online digital way of shopping, increasing competition from duty and tax-free shops at airports have both lead the carrier to reduce costs and cut the onboard sales. However, KLM investigates other forms of 'travel retail' Kartman said, "We will start several pilot projects for this. Customer convenience and a large assortment of products are central to this. "
