Beijing Airport to go it alone?

Anna Fenton

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Sources close to the Chinese government confirmed to RavenFox.com that an agreement allowing Beijing Capital International Airport to source duty-free goods independently of China Duty Free Group will soon be made official

Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) is on the brink of breaking away from China's state run duty-free monopoly China Duty Free Group (CDFG).

At the beginning of the year BCIA formed a separate management and purchasing division, the Beijing International Airport Commercial and Trading Company, of which the airport is the main shareholder.   

This is understood to be the key step in preparation to import duty-free products direct from suppliers and independently of CDFG. Until recently, it was thought that BCIA would need to form a partnership with a foreign company for the airport to break away from CDFG, but a foreign investor is not now believed to be necessary.

The new organisation will manage and purchase duty-free goods for a total of six airports in China acquired by BCIA over the past two years. These include Tianjin, Guizhou, Chingdao, Wuhan and all the airports in Jiangxi province.

BCIA declined to discuss this development or to confirm that the new company can or will operate without CDFG.

Nevertheless, reliable sources told RavenFox.com that the agreement to operate a separate company is official, has been signed by government authorities and is expected to take effect within three months.     

This could herald the end of CDFG's monopoly on Chinese airport retail, leading to the liberalisation of China's potentially vast duty-free market. Outbound mainland Chinese travellers are forecast to number 120m by 2020, almost equal to the population of Japan.