SOUTH KOREA. Lotte Duty Free is to temporarily close its cosmetics & fragrance operation at Gimpo International Airport from 12 March in the face of the COVID-19 crisis. The company said that flight schedules had been reduced to one or two per day and that there are “virtually no duty free shoppers”. It said it was uncertain when the operation would resume.
Gimpo International is the second gateway to Seoul behind Incheon International. The leading passengers by nationality are South Korean (51%), Japanese (29%) and Chinese (11%).
Gimpo offers many services to and from Japanese airports, but these have been curtailed since the Japanese government introduced restrictions on travel from South Korea from 9 March.
Lotte Duty Free said it had “comprehensively reviewed the situation and negotiated with Korea Airports Corporation and decided to enter a temporary suspension from the 12th”.
A report in respected news title JoongAng Ilbo quoted a representative as saying that under current circumstances, it was difficult even to hit sales of KRW1 million (US$840), compared to the figure on a normal day of KRW100-200 million (US$83-168,000).
In addition, Lotte Duty Free plans to reduce the operating hours of its downtown stores by a further hour, having already cut opening hours last month. Downtown duty free stores will now operate from 9.30-17.30.
As reported, the retailer created an emergency response committee on 24 January headed by CEO Kap Lee as Chairman. Lotte Duty Free is conducting stringent health and safety measures, including the disinfecting of its stores more than six times a day. In addition to mandating the wearing of masks by all employees, the retailer also provides masks to customers using the store.
