KLM to stop selling duty free items on board

KLM will stop selling tax-free products on board its flights during the course of the year. Sales on flights within Europe will stop on July 1st, and on intercontinental flights by the end of the year, NOS reports.

Sales are decreasing more and more and by stopping the sales cabin crew members can now "focus more on service to travelers", a KLM spokesperson said to the broadcaster. There will be experiments in selling products in a different way, but the spokesperson did not yet want to say what these will entail.

Benno Leeser, director of Gassan Diamonds in Amsterdam, regrets KLM's decision. "We only have a few products, a ring and a few earrings, but we sold well", he said to NOS. He expects that KLM will try to sell items online, but he does not have high expectations of that. "I think that many of those tax-free products were impulse purchases. Many business centers are not close to shops and if you had to wait a long time for customs and you still want to bring a gift, selling on board is a solution."