What do people buy on international flights?

Do people really buy stuff when they are flying on international flights? Maybe they will wait until they get to their destination – especially if it’s a holiday location. But people do spend money on flights - a lot actually.

Qantas, the Australian airline, records nearly 350,000 duty free shopping transactions a year (Canberra Times, July 25, 2014). The most popular items are (in order): polarised wire-frame sunglasses, global power adaptors, vodka, other alcohol, travel photo lens sets, lip balm, and macadamia chocolates.

GuestLogix analyzed more than eight million transactions on five North American airlines and found passengers spent more money on alcohol than any other inflight purchase. But most were onboard consumption, rather than duty free, because on American flights passengers purchase their own food and drinks. A third (33%) of the alcohol sales were spirits, followed by wine (13%) and beer (10%). The alcohol sales totalled $40 million in just four months. Non-alcoholic drinks were just 1% of sales, with fresh food items making up most of the remaining purchases. Very few people bought pillows and blankets, but head sets and inflight entertainment combined accounted for 4% of total sales. GuestLogix found that flights to holiday destinations, such as Las Vegas, Mexico, and Hawaii recorded the highest average sales. And Sundays were consistently the highest revenue day for inflight sales across all categories on American flights.

British Airways conducted a study using hi-tech blankets to record passenger' emotions on various flights - the fibre-optic blankets were linked to head sets that turned the blankets red when passengers were stressed or anxious and blue when they were calm and relaxed. BA found eating and drinking made passengers a lot happier. The blankets also served as 'early warning systems' for flight attendants so that they could attend to anxious passengers. Mostly inflight shopping relieves boredom.

hi-tech blankets

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