A decade-old feature will soon come to an end with SWISS Air Lines as the carrier announced it will phase out in-flight duty-free sales as of September 30, 2026, in favor of online sales.

SWISS says the shopping habits of travelers have changed, and the assortment of goods will be integrated into the Lufthansa Worldshop as the official retail outlet for travelers.

Duty Free sales have indeed been less and less popular in the western world; only Asia still has solid demand from travelers and rather attractive offers that also impact the salary of the cabin crew, as they receive a commission.

Most notably Japan and Korea are still big when it comes to in-flight shopping demand, but you see vast  and elaborate offers of duty-free shops at most airports in Asia as well.

For SWISS, however, it’s now the end of the line as they announced this week.

Buying something on your travels or even on a flight was quite a novelty. I think most of the time I buy some sweets (usually overpriced) if I feel like having some chocolate, but I remember getting a set of headphones on an Air France flight to Los Angeles and a wallet a while back.

Also, does anyone still remember the infamous SkyMall catalog on U.S. flights that was around until the late 2000s with rather bizarre products?

The company eventually filed for bankruptcy but that only meant the products moved to teleshopping channels.

It was always a fun read, though. However, serious duty-free sales with branded products have nothing to do with the SkyMall, and prices aren’t always (rarely) competitive.

Conclusion

SWISS has announced the end of in-flight shopping on all its flights from September 30th, and this will be the end of an era. Duty Free Sales were quite the hallmark for airlines over decades and is still very big for some of them.

I foresee a lot more airlines ending their duty-free sales in the near future, as it costs carriers quite a lot of money to facilitate the sales, keep track of inventory, pay commission to staff, etc.

Have you purchased something from duty free sales on one of your flights recently?

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