{
  "id": 3916088,
  "title": "MAHB reviews duty-free concession model at its airports",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/28/mahb-reviews-duty-free-concession-model-at-its-airports",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-08-28T07:21:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "New Straits Times",
    "slug": "new-straits-times",
    "url": "https://www.nst.com.my/business/corporate/2026/08/1520652/mahb-reviews-duty-free-concession-model-its-airports"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) is evaluating its current duty-free retail operations at airports with the goal of enhancing passenger choice and the overall shopping experience. To gather industry perspectives on alternative models, MAHB has dispatched a request for information (RFI) to explore diverse commercial and operational approaches. The RFI serves as a market-sounding exercise, not a formal procurement process, and no final decisions have been made regarding changes to the existing duty-free model or subsequent procurement efforts. The review stems from an independent benchmarking study against regional and international airports, which identified opportunities to enhance the existing model and explore alternative airport retail strategies. MAHB intends to assess how duty-free offerings can provide greater product differentiation and choice as passenger expectations and shopping habits evolve. Before deciding on a new concession structure, MAHB aims to first define the desired retail experience, then select the most appropriate operating model. The airport operator's Managing Director, Datuk Mohd Izani Ghani, emphasized that this exercise is part of MAHB's broader review of commercial offerings, following a recently issued RFI for its airport advertising business. Both exercises reflect MAHB's efforts to ensure commercial offerings contribute meaningfully to the airport experience. MAHB conducted benchmarking internationally to inform the RFI and gather market insights and industry capabilities. Findings from the RFI will be evaluated alongside the benchmarking results and other factors before management formulates recommendations for the board. Any future recommendations will be data-driven and market-insight guided, with passenger experience remaining the primary focus. MAHB consulted existing duty-free concessionaires during the review through individual engagements and a joint dialogue session. The final recommendations will be based on the collected data and market insights, always keeping passenger experience as the top priority.",
  "summary": "KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) is reviewing how duty-free retail is operated at its airports as it explores alternative concession models aimed at improving passenger choice and the overall shopping experience.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}